


materfamilias

by Belfire



Series: Adventures of the Doppelgangers [3]
Category: Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: AK's knowledge of Victorian slang, Adventure Time References, Arkham Knight needs love, Because of Reasons, Bruce & Slade are both done with Red Hood, Child Abandonment, Crossover, F/M, Jason Todd does what he wants, Jason is Arkham Knight & Red Hood at once, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, M/M, Over the Top, Past Sexual Abuse, Past Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Roy is spiritually exhausted with his boyfriend, Sequel to a sequel, canon? What's canon?, dramatic LGBTQ characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-07-27 23:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20053972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Belfire/pseuds/Belfire
Summary: "... You and your torture. Bet you weren't sold out to the Joker by your own mother, though." Oh, so it was a competition of tragedies, was it?"Nah. I killed her before she could kill me. Or Maroni did, anyway. Catherine-""You mean Sheila." Hood cut him off with a frown."No. I mean Catherine." Why would he say fucking Sheila if he was talking about his mother? Their mother. Hood knew her name, didn't he? Then again, wouldn't be surprising if the dumb idiot didn't."Who the hell is Sheila?"





	1. The Bloodnut Queen of Drug Abuse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anrim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anrim/gifts).

> *has literally been wanting to write this since last fic of this series ended*
> 
> To my dear Anrim, the OG inspiration for this 'verse.
> 
> And yeah, yeah, I'll update current works soon just let me have something heartfelt and cute. I need it right now.

It didn't get much better than this. Now, the Arkham Knight nor Jason Todd were rarely in a position where either could think that, not with all the shit and trash life had thrown their way, but right now, _everything_ felt... right. Maybe it was because the warm comfortable sunshine had finally peeked its head from behind the days of storm clouds, or was it the sweet flavour of Rose's candy chapstick tingling on every taste bud as she kissed him?

Spring in Athens, the white marble pillars of the Parthenon stood majestically against the horizon in the background, ascending towards the sky like it could touch the soft baby blue canvas. The temple was built by ancient Greeks for the goddess Athena, the powerful female deity associated with wisdom, handicraft and warfare. The latter didn't feel in place, especially not in the shadow of the great building. Not since warfare and anger couldn't presently be further from the couple. Jason had never experienced such a thing as bliss, but if he had to guess, then this must be pretty close to it.

They didn't live far from here, they'd decided to take a walk, Rose sat at a picnic table and one thing lead to another, here they were. Like no one was watching, like they were the only people for miles, and Jason marvelled at the prospect of feeling safe enough to allow a show of vulnerability - _especially_ in a public place. It was Rose. She made him feel safe. The Arkham Knight was never in such a mindset, he fought wars that only existed in his head. He lead armies to destroy anything standing a meter above ground while the little broken Robin in his head whimpered in a terrified ball. He could scream and not know if it was from rage or fear.

But it had been a while since Jason could call himself that man.

Maybe he was... maybe he was finally _getting_ better? If someone were to tell him that one and a half years ago, when he fell through that portal into 52, that he would _ever_ be able to say that, he would have recommended them an extended visit to Arkham. But lately, he hadn't heard the asylum's barred doors slamming open and shut in his head. No longer any shrieking laughter and buzzsaws whirling. He didn't wake up from crippling nightmares to the phantom smell of blood and tears. His dissociation had gone down to a few instances a month and even the voices quietened to the point where he could have his own thoughts.

But it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops. There was still the PTSD, the schizophrenia, the bipolar, and the flashbacks he needed to deal with. There were days where he couldn't do anything except hide away in a corner, rocking himself for hours while tears built-up in his eyes. Rose always sat with him then, shushing him with sweet little assurances and promising so many times, that it was okay.

On top of that, his formerly shattered shoulder ached like fire and lightning whenever he used it even a bit too much, thus resulting in him having to wear his arm in a sling some days to even out the weight of the limb. A doctor said if he didn't use it and let it rest, there was a chance of the broken bone and ligaments healing. It would never be painless but it could get better.

AK also had a thing about people touching him. Without permission, no one was to try. Rose was allowed. Slade, if it was necessary. And Roy, whenever he was around. He hadn't seen the latter two in a couple of months, though. Roy visited when he could and Slade dropped by at random intervals. When that happened, the old guy claimed he was only in town for a mission but his daughter and Jason both knew he was checking in. It was appreciated, even if he quite literally appeared in their bedroom sometimes, looming over until one of them woke.

That was less appreciated, admittedly.

Rose thought Slade was annoying and should just fuck off to mind his own business but it meant something to Jason that he swung by now and then. No male authority in his life had ever done that for him. Third time's the charm, correct?

"What're you thinking about?" Her eyes half shut with sleepiness the warmth caused, Rose asked as she moved her soft pouty lips from over his, the corners tweaked up into a beautiful smile that was distinctly _Rose_.

"Your dad." Lazily, Jason smiled back, his face held in both of her hands. The setting sunshine teeming through the branches of the overhead weeping willow cast long fingery shadows across her but her scowl was evident despite it.

"Eww. You're thinking about my dad while you're making out with me?"

"What can I say? You look like him." His grin broadened as her features scrunched up in disgust, clearly she was taking that as an insult. Not like it could really be perceived as a compliment by an ordinary person.

"_Except_..." Straddling the picnic bench, Jason leaned into her, his hand slid down her back to shamelessly cup her bouncy ass and squeeze it lightly while his right arm hung by his chest in the sling, wishing it could join in on groping his lady. He nuzzled the length of her cheek in an Eskimo kiss, the softness of his breath caressing her smooth buttery skin.

"... You're _way_ prettier than Slade." He pressed a little kiss onto the tip of her nose to further his point. She giggled.

"And you have a _much_ better set of tits." He kissed her forehead, the soft strands of her snowy hair ticklish against the sensitive flesh of his throat. His splayed out fingers moved from her ass, up her side and crept beneath the hem of her tank top, gliding across her warm body to her upper ribs, where he took full liberty of her going natural with no bra.

Gentle so as to never make her so much as uncomfortable, Jason rounded his palm over one of her plump breasts, carefully kneading the faultless feature of her body. Jason loved these, Cupid's kettle drums, as the Victorians would say. But then he loved all of her. 

"_Jason_..." Rose sounded as if though she was trying to tell him off about fondling her in a public place but the note of enjoyment in her voice wasn't missed. Grinning, Jason moved his fingers to work on that spot he knew was _especially_ sensitive, making her give a quiet gasp when he rolled her nipple between his index and thumb. He liked where this was going, he'd like it even more if it ended with her skirt hiked up her thighs and his head between them. Public indecency was his favourite pastime.

"... Not to mention I don't _love_ your dad." Jason added, his perverted fingers pausing for just a moment.

"But I do love you. A _lot_."

Rose smiled so genuinely when he said that for the umpteenth time, not that he could ever say it enough, and light came into her husky blue eyes, that telltale sign of happiness. Sunshine glinted off the engagement ring on her finger but the glimmer was nowhere near as bright as her expression.

"I love you too, Jay. More every day." She pulled him into a warm kiss, simultaneously drawing him completely into her spell that made all the bad things go far. Every demon and nightmare, fear and worry, they drifted away when he was with her. Jason could have stayed there all afternoon, drank in the sanity he only felt with her but as Murphy would have it, the most unpleasant thing imaginable interrupted.

"_Gross_. I can't believe you're still so confused you think you're straight." Someone very irritating plunked down heavily into the seat across the table from them. Just by the singular comment alone, AK knew that voice since it was _his_. He already recognised it before he pulled away from Rose and warily regarded the man who joined them, uninvited. All the happiness from that one sweet moment was sucked away by the walking _apocalypse_ that was Red fucking Hood, sitting quite comfortably there, staring like an idiot. Jesus Christ, where did this moron come from so suddenly?

Hood's arm was pulled out behind him as his fingers were locked around his Roy's wrist, seemingly walking him behind until that point. Roy looked tired, he looked unhappy and he didn't look like he wanted to be there. His expression, in one word, was _done_.

Part of Jason died every time he set eyes on his doppelganger. For instance, he didn't even possess the life within him to glare hatefully at Hood. He just watched and questioned why God had forsaken him? Hadn't he suffered enough without _this_?

"You're basically in denial at this point, babe." Hood went on, grinning and he was the only person there who was. Jason's eyes flitted to Roy's and there was a silent moment of mutual sympathy between them.

"Guys _know_ what guys want. And dick tastes pretty damn good." The idiot winked suggestively with his crooked smirk, right as he pulled gingersnap into the seat beside him and slung a possessive arm around his shoulders, messily kissing his cheekbone. Ginger didn't respond, he stared blankly ahead. He appeared to be spiritually exhausted with his boyfriend. Like he'd come down with a bad case of the morbs.

"Jason, stop being heterophobic." Was the only thing gingersnap said. Jason cringed at how deflated his voice was.

"That's not a thing." Hood insisted, winding his arms around his partner's midriff, resting his chin on the crook of his shoulder. Jason's identical wouldn't stop smiling. Why wouldn't he stop smiling?

"You're _making_ it a thing." Roy elbowed Hood and pushed him away, breaking the unwanted embrace. Jason couldn't help but notice he was upset with Hood, which the red-capped idiot appeared to be completely oblivious to.

"What are you guys doing here?" Rose was the first to raise the obvious question. Her fingers curled around Jason's wrist and removed his limb from where he'd forgotten it up her shirt. They straightened, leaning away from one another and both looking at the two-dimension skippers. Their hands remained clasped, Rose sensed Jason needed the emotional support to deal with his doppelganger.

"I don't know. Ask _him_." Gingersnap shot his boyfriend an unmistakably accusatory glare, further confirming that all was not well between them. It was strange to see, their dynamic always appeared perfect.

"_Hood_?" Rose cocked a snowy brow in his direction. She was extremely unamused as she didn't like Jason's genetic identical any more than Jason did.

For a brief instance, Hood observed his ginger cookie, silently asking himself what had him so grumpy but shouldn't he know? Especially when it was likely something _he_ did? But then, being as unattentive as he was, Hood returned his attention to Rose and Jason instead of focusing on his unarguably better half. Roy exhaled and rolled his eyes, crossing his tattooed arms.

A prickle of unease crept down Jason's spine. Seeing couples arguing or silently waging a war, it made him remember Catherine and Willis turning on each other shortly before they turned on him.

It made him unwillingly worried despite all logic. Rose was aware of that, she detected it and gave his hand a comforting squeeze.

"I gotta talk to you about something, AK." Hood's toxic waste green eyes moved to Rose, sitting beside Jason.

"Like... _Alone_."

Roy sighed loudly as he abruptly stood, assuming Hood's cue applied to him too. He probably wasn't wrong. Gingersnap didn't speak to his boyfriend at all before he headed away. Hood chewed on his lip as he watched him go.

"Will you be okay if I leave you two alone, babe?" Rose asked, turning to Jason and he nodded, a tad sceptical. He knew he needed to confront whatever Hood wanted and the sooner he did, the sooner the idiot would leave.

"Go on..." Jason mumbled, not excited to be left alone. Rose... Uh, _rose_, kissed Jason on his branded cheek then went after Roy. They met up quickly and walked together, talking about something neither of the Jasons could hear. Gingersnap gestured to the ring on Rose's finger, the one Jason put there two months ago, and they began to discuss it.

"You're _engaged_ now?" Hood sounded as if he didn't quite believe it, all evidence aside.

"_Why_? You've been dating Rose for like... a _year_. Barely."

Jason turned in the picnic seat to Hood with an exhausted exhale. He was already done with this conversation.

"_So_? I love her." Honestly, Jason didn't know why he should explain anything to this moron but he went ahead with it anyway.

"I hope you checked with Slade."

"_Of course_ I did." AK frowned with an extremely serious expression. It irritated him immensely that Hood would even entertain the idea that he wouldn't ask Rose's father's permission to marry her. It was just a matter of basic respect.

Second hand overwhelmed, Hood blew his cheeks out, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

"I still dunno, babe. Twelve months is a _pretty_ short time. I've been dating Roy for four years and I can't see us getting hitched anytime soon."

"And you wonder why he's peeved?" AK rolled his eyes, blue-tinged by green thanks to Hood's diseased blood infesting him once upon a time. It was a saturated colour, however, warmer, far more natural than the toxic orbs lodged into Hood's skull. Hood's glowed in the dark too, as if all that latter stuff wasn't the cherry on top. Glowed like fucking night lights.

"Your lack of commitment is frustrating even from a bystander's point of view."

"... He seemed mad to you too?"

"Uh, _yeah?_ He's clearly livid."

Hood frowned, as if it didn't occur to him his partner's mood was on full display like an arrangement of entrees. Hood stared at his hands in their black glovelets for a moment, completely distracted. Didn't look like he wanted to discuss the matter. He examined his nails then turned back to Jason, resting his elbows on the table.

"What do _you_ do when Rose is pissed? Roy's been mad at me for two weeks consecutively and I don't know what to do. I've tried everything." He held his head, slumped over, tired in a way he didn't show earlier. Maybe he wasn't so oblivious to the tension between himself and gingersnap after all.

"You seriously skipped the inter-dimensional barrier wall for _relationship advice_?" Jason had a hard time believing that from someone like his doppelganger. It wasn't like either of them to reach out, Hood must _really_ be desperate. Bruce would knock him upside the head for wasting resources on his own dumb insecurities.

"You get on well with Roy despite being me, so _obvi_, you're doing something different. I need to know what."

"Not dating him is the first major difference I can think of." As he spoke, Jason shifted his position slightly when his shoulder began to burn, easing it into a less uncomfortable angle. The sling took majority of the weight of his arm, it lessened the strain by a lot and yet the burning tingle always persisted. He shot Hood a quick jealous leer when his alternate version sat there, his body perfectly functioning and painless. One of them drew the shorter straw.

Hood ignored what Jason said and watched him like a wanting puppy, expecting him to have some treasure trove of wisdom he could just crack open at any moment.

Jason sighed, running a hand over his face and through his hair.

"I don't know what to tell you, Hood. Rose is the only person I've ever dated, I don't have enough experience to be dishing out advice."

Jason's twin groaned in a defeated way, posture sinking until his forehead was pressed against the picnic table's surface. From his angle, Jason noticed his bangs were greying to the white primary colour of his forelocks. Guess he was due for a redye soon?

When the silence became awkward, Jason adjusted his position uncomfortably, parting his lips for something to say seconds before a sentence actually came into his head.

"Uh... You and gingersnap been fighting for long?"

"Roughly two weeks." Hood mumbled miserably into the tabletop. He sounded tired, a bit... okay, a _lot_.

"It's just gotten worse. He's not arguing or fighting with me but he's being all quiet and distant and I can tell he's upset at something I did but he won't tell me what."

Jason chewed on his lip in thought. Truly, he didn't know what he was meant to say or how he could help when everything with him and Rose was always a bed of peach petals, and gingersnap wasn't prone to holding grudges - Jason should know, so whatever Hood did must really be bad.

"Did you forget an anniversary or something?"

Raising his head, Hood looked up from his cradle of arms. He was, for all intents and purposes, very tired. It was anyone's guess how he was his annoying grinning self so convincingly until they were alone. Jason Todd was a good liar, no matter the dimension.

"No. I always remember. In fact, our anniversary _was_ two weeks ago. That's about the time he got mad."

"Did you say something dumb?"

Hood's brow furrowed as he thought back on every sentence out of his mouth on that day and he shook his head.

"Not that I think. Nothing that could've pissed him off to this extent." He straightened his arched spine, regaining his height as he did. Elbows on the table, Hood leaned closer to his doppelganger so that there was a foot of space between them.

"Like, the other day, we were on a mission and we got trapped in a section of caved-in drainage pipe. It took us hours to get out, all the while not talking and just stuck there, squished together. I don't think you can even begin to comprehend how uncomfortable something like that is."

Cocking a brow, AK smirked humourlessly, sitting back against the seat so as to avoid close contact with Hood. Jason crossed his arms and tipped his head. Granted, the sling made the position difficult but he ignored that.

"Well, I was repeatedly raped and tortured over the course of a year but _yeah_, I'm sure your experience exceeds any of mine as far as discomfort goes."

Hood regarded him dully, clearly unappreciative of the conversation shifting away from him for a moment. His palms were flat against the tabletop, he began a rhythmic tapping with his fingertips. Clearly, he was irked and that made Jason feel good. He was still the biggest idiot there was, he deserved everything but happiness.

"You and your _torture_. Bet you weren't sold out to the Joker by your own mother, though." Oh, so it was a competition of tragedies, was it?

"Nah. I killed her before she could kill me. Or Maroni did, anyway. Catherine-"

"You mean _Sheila_." Hood cut him off with a frown.

"_No_. I mean _Catherine_." Why would he say fucking _Sheila_ if he was talking about his mother? _Their_ mother. Hood _knew_ her name, didn't he? Then again, wouldn't be surprising if the dumb idiot didn't.

"Who the hell is Sheila?"

Hood stared at him, at a total loss, then a slow knowing grin of realisation spread across his stupid face like a disease. He laid his hand over his mouth and continued smiling into it, looking away as if something was so amusing it demanded all of his attention. Jason's forehead furrowed until his brows almost met.

"Oh _boy_..." Hood snickered like an evil villain's rat underdog.

"_What_?" Jason demanded, unappreciative to be out of the loop. He couldn't stand being in the dark about something Hood knew.

There was laughter in Hood's voice when he spoke, merriment he tried to mute as he cleared his throat into his fist. He couldn't stop grinning though.

"AK, baby, honey, sweet oblivious darling of mine... Catherine Todd is _not_ our biological mother. _Sheila Haywood_ is."

**"... What?"**

**"** <strike> ** _Que_ ** </strike> **?"**

_"Excuse me?"_

"... What?" Jason blinked slowly, not understanding despite the clear cut way Hood presented himself. It didn't make a lick of sense what he was saying and that wouldn't change if he were mumbling or a fucking paid public speaker.

**"That bloodnut queen of drug abuse isn't birdie's egg donor? Well, I'll be."**

_"But... but I - I thought Catherine was our mom."_ Robin sounded very lost, Jason could second him there, neither of them able to comprehend the bullshit Hood was staging as truth.

Hood chewed on the first knuckle of his bent index, his teeth showing with his broad smile. He was looking at Jason, drinking in his confusion like ambrosia. Fucking sadist.

"You _seriously_ didn't know that?"

"Nh... no." Jason was a bit slow here, yet to properly come out of his shock. This didn't make any sense. Catherine was his mother, she always had been, there was no branch of existence where that age-old fact wasn't so.

"This Sheila bitch might be your mom but she's not mine."

**"Eh... someone tell Birdie why that doesn't make sense."**

"You know that's not possible, don't you, babe?"

**"Thank you, Hoodsie. He's such a good lad..."**

"We're genetic identicals, that doesn't work if we only share a father - _hold the phone_." Hood stood without a twitch of a muscle in the form of warning, stepping over the bench behind him. Where was he going? He'd completely forgotten why he was here, he appeared to be experiencing some form of enthusiasm. Jason wondered if he was bipolar too. Sometimes it really seemed like it with his manic mood swings. Hood really needed to get that checked out.

"If you never met your Sheila, then there's a good chance she's still alive in this 'verse."

Hunched over, Jason watched his double from the corner of his eye. This... this couldn't be true. Not because he couldn't accept the possibility of his DNA not being spliced with a nasty dose of Catherine Todd, but the thought of _another_ parent exhausted him to his very soul. _Jesus_, with Willis, Cathy, Bruce, and Slade combined, he didn't have the emotional strength to picture a new name to add to that list of would-be parental figures.

"So?"

"_So_ we gotta go find her!"

"Didn't you _just_ say she had you killed?" He cocked a brow. As per the usual, Hood made as much sense as the anatomy of a platypus. His attention span really wasn't worth bragging over.

Hood shrugged indifferently.

"_Nyeah_..."

"Then why on _Earth_ would you want to see her?"

"Cause I wanna see if she's different here. I mean, your Bruce and Nightwing are evil, mine aren't, your Slade is moving in an axis around the realm of close to decent while mine got off a shuttle to planet crazy murdering psychopath. Your Catherine and Willis were terrible people while in 52, they tried to be better. So in _theory_, your version of mom shouldn't be as morally decayed as mine. And that's why we've _got_ to go find her."

"But..." Jason fidgeted with his arms around himself.

"... I don't want to do that. I've barely stayed alive this long, I don't want to cross paths with _another_ homicidal maniac who wants me dead." His parents, Joker, Black Mask, Scarecrow, Dick, Doctor Olsen, every other rogue from the Bat's gallery, that was plenty enough for him as far as maniacs went.

"Didn't you hear what I said? She probably won't be evil."

"Your logic is flawed." Jason informed his twin as he got off the bench too, gathering his hoodie to come with him so he wouldn't forget it in a pile on the table. He dressed fully once more, self-conscious about his horribly scarred arms beside Hood's far less tarnished ones. Bitterness chipped away at him when he was presented with the shining example of what he should look like.

AK came a small distance from his doppelganger, standing there as if before a mirror that reflected everything except the J-scar only one of them was unfortunate enough to bear.

"Our worlds aren't polar opposites. We still got things in common, obviously. There is no assurance in saying that just because _your_ version of Sheila was an evil bitch, then mine automatically _isn't_."

"Then if we do got shit in common, are you admitting to not being straight?" Hood smirked. Jason rolled his eyes with a scoff. He knew his doppelganger was trying to get on his nerves and mission accomplished.

"_No_. I still don't let anything naked with a dick near me, I'm _still_ not gay, you fucking gigglemug."

Hood leaned closer with his ever-prominent grin, lessening the space between them to mere inches so that their sneakers touched.

"C'mon, crazy, I'm the one who should be afraid here, not _you_."

Jason scowled at him, fists clenching into tight balls.

"I'm _not_ afraid."

"Yeah?_ Prove it_. Let's look into her, at least."

**"OMG, finally some ** ** _action_ ** **!!"**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've finally reached that point in existence where Jason refers to his alternate dimension self as "babe". A milestone for humanity.


	2. Stepmother Jason Todd

"_See_? Do you _see_?" Grinning widely, Jason indicated to the computer screen displaying current information about Sheila and he was bearing the same energy as that gesturing Will Smith meme. Uncertain, AK looked away, hugging himself tighter while Rose scowled and Roy frowned, all of this mixed emotion centring on Jason. AK's mother being alive in this 'verse and on top of that, having a _clean_ track record with no mention of drug rings or illegal abortion clinics, Jason appeared to be the only one excited about it.

"Jay, I don't think this is a good idea." Roy voiced his two cents on the matter, Jason was half-way surprised to hear his partner speak up. Since the moment they got here, Roy had showed nothing but lack of enthusiasm when he usually loved SciFi dimension jumping alternate reality shit. And he liked AK, didn't he? He wanted to see how he was doing, _right_?

"Last time you went looking for your mom, it ended with you getting blown up."

Jason clicked his tongue. It was difficult being on the rocks with Roy but being openly irritated was a fucking cinch.

"I know that, _honey_. But it's different here. She's not an evil bitch."

"And how do you _know_ that?" He pressed like he wanted for there to be an issue.

"You thought she was an angel on earth before too. And then she blew. You. _Up_." Roy popped the P annoyingly, as if Jason really needed the reminder of how his exploits with the person who gave him life ended the last time. And to clarify, _Sheila_ didn't blow him up, she was just the sole reason it happened. Those were two very different things to stand accused of.

"Hood, you're the only person who wants anything to do with this whackjob idea," Rose interjected herself into the conversation and looky here, she was as opinionated as ever. Inwardly, Jason rolled his eyes, his memory refreshed as to why he never pursued anything with her. Christ, why was AK dumb enough to wanna marry this chick?

"Jason doesn't even _want_ to go look for her, and she's _his_ mother, not yours. He doesn't want any part of this, isn't that right, Jason?" Rose turned to AK with a whole lotta confidence in her standing, only then to be faced by an undecided shrug from her internationally wanted boyfriend. Jason's parallel version stared at his boots with those big blue eyes of his that could switch off all humanity in the crosshairs. He shifted his position with a noticeable reluctance to meet his fiancee's line of sight, which in no way mirrored how certain he was about committing to her in something as serious as marriage.

"_Jason_." Rose pressed a little harder when her beloved's silence became awkwardly long. AK _finally_ looked up, chewing on his bottom lip.

"What do you wanna say, babe?" Jason tilted his chin up a fraction, one arm looped over the back of the office chair by the desk. He knew his twin didn't appreciate being put on the spot this way, pulled at like a rope in a tug-of-war between two polar opinions, and he bet Rose knew that too.

If she could ignore AK's discomfort, so could Jason.

"I... I think this Sheila woman can't be so great, seeing as how she abandoned me with that nutcase Willis and his psycho bitch." He never took his gaze off his lady as he spoke, worried the wrong answer would displease her. Rose wasn't a tyrant, he just had his difficulties disagreeing with someone he loved. Jason didn't have that problem. It was a Knight thing.

"_Exactly_." Slade's daughter nodded sharply, approvingly.

"But we don't know why she did that. Maybe there's a perfectly understandable reason." Jason argued back from his snug spot in the chair.

"And maybe she _doesn't_. We're not taking that chance." Rose snapped.

"But doesn't AK want his family at you two's wedding? He doesn't really have any while you got Slade and Joey, Wintergreen - Grant if he's not still dead, and don't you got a shit tonne of Titan friends, hmm, _Rose_?"

"It's not gonna be a big thing, Hood." AK sighed warily with an exasperated wave of his hands.

"The ceremony. We don't have a lot of people showing up. The less of a scene we make, the less chance there is of some evil supervillain showing up and ruining everything. So I don't... I don't need my estranged mother there. Someone I've _never_ met."

"Sweetheart, your whole body was once up this woman's cervix. It's safe to say you've met her."

AK cringed at Jason's comment while Roy lowered his head into his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. What? Certainly, they were aware of how gestation worked. Surely they were up to date with how this _situation_ was. Accidentally, AK knew about Sheila now, he denied wanting anything to do with her but eventually, his Jasony nature would seize hold and drive him to investigate. And then if by any tiny chance everything went wrong, it could go very wrong. Take it from a man who knew.

Damage control drove Jason to pursue this matter. He didn't want his double to do anything that might land him in a predicament remotely near to the one he found himself in when he thought to expose his throat to mom. Sure, Sheila appeared to be legit here, no criminal record, no run-ins with the law, she held down a stable respected position at a hospital across the pond, but he would never be too careful with her. For AK's sake. That guy, for all his misdeeds, he didn't need to get hurt again.

Jason wanted to be a blast shield in case the fuse was lit. He always wanted to protect himself from what happened in Ethiopia, this was a nice way of realising that daydream.

"Just no, Hood. _No_. Forget this." AK said but may as well not have, as Jason knew a part of him that he denied wanted to wade into unknown waters. With all the anger and stubbornness, the high walls and fragile traumas, there was curiosity that disabled the most vital of senses; caution.

"No one's going to look for this woman."

Rose and Roy, well they agreed with like-minded nods but they didn't know AK better than Jason did. Not by a long shot. Part of him had to want to know Sheila, and it was the same part that made him give Bruce a second chance time and time again no matter the rawness of recent wounds. Because deep down, he _wanted_ that stable parent/child relationship. Who could blame him? It was a natural human instinct, after all, one he would indulge at the slightest opportunity. 

But sure. AK wasn't even a little bit inclined to find his mother.

Jason shrugged his shoulders loosely.

"A'ight. If you say so, crazy." He rose from the seat and drifted past the three of them. Their gazes tracked his movement as he went to stand by the window facing the bay, opened a crack. Resting his hands on the windowsill, he leaned on it as he took in the view.

Lovely place AK and Rose had here, beachside, pricy by the look of it with its pine wood floors and large airy rooms. The furniture was dark mahogany, solidly built, looked really good for bending someone over. Now there was a sexy thought...

It must have cost a pretty penny to buy this house, nice to know Jason's doppelganger put his criminal mastermind money to decent use. Like buying a home for him and his soon-to-be-wife. Cute. But that aside, Jason was having a hard time believing the man who tortured, violently beat him and proceeded to steal his identity was the same as the one trying to settle his life.

AK wanted normalcy. He wanted it badly. Normal people had mothers.

"What are you thinking about, Jay?" Roy asked, walking up beside him. So they were talking now? And here he thought he was gonna have to suck someone's dick for it.

"An ancient psychic tandem war elephant." Jason absently replied, watching the setting sun as it sank into the skyline like a big juicy blood orange. Delicious.

Roy shook his head.

"You need to stop quoting Adventure Time."

"Hmm..." Chewing on his lip, Jason gazed at the fluffy grey seagull chick run squawking across the beach after its mother. It shouldn't be out of the safety of the nest, in the open any matter of predator could smite it, yet it didn't see any of the danger over its desperation to reunite with its parent.

"... Maybe."

* * *

_Five AM_.... Too early to rise but she didn't have a grain of sleepiness left in her, so laying in bed seemed almost more torturous than the early hour. Quietly, Rose rolled over in the crumbled blankets and sheets, turning to the side Jason hadn't laid in all night. She knew just by not feeling his weight, his warmth, beside her that he wasn't there. It was commonplace for her to sleep alone, though not necessarily alone in the bedroom, just in the bed.

Jason struggled gravely with getting his head down on soft comfortable surfaces, he dishearteningly enough preferred the cold wood of the floor. And by hearing his soft low breaths, Rose could tell that was the case this time too. He would lay with her, often until she drifted off first, and then he removed himself. He often complained the floor wasn't hard enough. It should be concrete.

Rose wished that he slept with her through the whole night but she never voiced that. She didn't push anything she knew he was uncomfortable with. It was the same with any form of intimacy between them; Rose never tried to initiate a thing. If Jason wanted to make out or have sex, she left him in control of that. He needed total control over those matters in particular.

It got frustrating, yes, but Rose wanted his wellbeing intact much more than she wanted to fulfil any carnal desires.

It was simpler before when he was still actively the Knight as Jason distracted himself from his brittle traumas, the triggers weren't so easy to fall over. Sometimes, something as small as a surprise touch on his arm could launch Jason into a full-blown panic attack or a flurry of terrifying flashbacks that would numb him for days.

But simpler didn't mean healthy. They needed to sort through Jason's mountain range of issues, Rose buckled down and got on with it. It's not like she was the one suffering most.

It was better than it used to be, however, and that was all that mattered. It was much better because they were dealing with what created the Arkham Knight. For example, if Jason hadn't recovered even a tiny bit, he wouldn't have asked Rose to, in his own words, 'do him the incredulous honour of anchoring to him in a legally binding ceremony'. Taking that over a year ago, Jason couldn't commit to routine eating, this was a massive step.

Marriage... Weddings... Rose chewed on her smile as she rolled onto her belly, upper body propped up on her elbows. She'd never seen herself as a wife to anyone but would be lying if she said it had never been a fantasy of hers. And now it was coming true.

Of course, the moment Slade found out about the engagement, he demanded to know if she was pregnant and then proceeded to steal a sample of her blood to test against her wall of flat out denial.

_Oh, daddy_... Slade would be Slade. She wasn't pregnant and didn't know if he was disappointed at no grandchildren. It was possible.

But all this talk about marriage and families made her unwittingly think back on Hood's argument about this Sheila lady yesterday.

Jason sometimes let it be known that he was jealous of Rose's and Slade's thing, their parent/child dynamic, and although dad had unofficially adopted Jason, it wasn't the same as a biological bond. And then when she said that _she_ was his family, he would smile and say he knew, nod and draw her in for a kiss, but that wasn't the same either.

Rose couldn't provide the thing Jason needed in every area, she was aware.

There were Roy and Lian, Babs and Tim, that maniac Stephanie, people Jason trusted but still, they weren't enough to fill that void. And she was quite sure Jason would secretly love to have his mother at his wedding. 

Rose exhaled deeply and roused herself enough to climb off the bed on all fours. She was careful not to step on Jason as she lowered her feet onto the floor. She remained sitting on the edge of the bed, squeezing the mattress while she watched her man.

Jason had an obligatory habit of sleeping with his arms twisted behind his back, where the circulation suffered a fair deal. It was because Joker restrained him like that for months on end, he was unwittingly accustomed to it. That wretched clown forced several behavioural patterns into Jason that he acted out to this day, even so long after his captivity.

Daddy told Rose to leave Jason to break these habits himself. No one could make him.

"Nh... No, get... Get off me..."

Rose came out of her thoughts to see Jason begin to weakly toss in his sleep, turning his head from side to side in a shaking motion. His features screwed up, he bit deep into his quivering lip, drawing tiny pearls of blood.

"Hey, it's okay, baby." Rose lowered herself carefully onto her knees to the floor beside Jason's twitching form. He whimpered pitifully at her touch when she brushed his bangs aside and gently kissed his brow. He was used to her touch even while asleep, he didn't flinch away in fear of it as he would with anyone else.

"Shh, shh, shh, you're alright, baby. No one's here except us." She pressed their foreheads together, pulling one of his hands out from beneath the bulk of his body so she could hold it. Comfortingly, she squeezed lightly, trying to draw him enough from his subconscious mind to snap him out of the nightmare without waking him.

Daddy taught her this method. He laid off of kissing Jason and holding his hand, of course, but was gentle nonetheless. It was odd for Deathstroke, that's for sure, but he wouldn't be the world's most lethal assassin if he was predictable.

"It's not real, Jay. You're not there anymore. It's just a nightmare." Rose continue assuring him until he unconsciously started to believe her. Gradually, Jason's tossing lessened, his whimpers converted to soft mewls. Rose sat with him, stroking her hair, until he was completely calm again then she stood, but not without kissing his branded cheek. She made a point to do that often, that terrible ugly thing lost its power bit by bit every time.

She wandered like a lost soul into the kitchen, deep into her own thoughts until she walked into a metaphorical brick wall in the form of the Hood, standing in by her counter with a mug of coffee. He was staring out of the backdoor towards the sun rising behind the bay.

_Shit_. Shit, she thought he'd already fucked off with his boyfriend back to Earth 52.

Nipping her bottom lip, Rose clenched her fists, hoping to stay quiet enough to not be detected by him. She really wasn't ready to communicate with this gutter rat.

But figures, he was Jason, his senses were honed to a razor's edge.

Hood turned his head slowly to her, wearing an obnoxious smirk even before their gazes aligned.

"Good morrow, sweets. Love the hairdo." He removed one hand from the mug to gesture to her oodles of snowfall hair, tangled to shit after eight hours of sleep. She scowled at him, all the while sorting out her messy tresses with her fingers.

"Why are you still here, Hood? Don't you have someone's cock to polish?"

His whore lips curved into a more annoying smile than before.

"Most can't match my libido, dear heart, so I'm letting them catch their breath." It was truly amazing how every word intended to degrade him just bounced off like a rubber ball on a brick surface. And he always had a comeback. _Always_. Without fail. It crossed the barrier of humanity.

"Although, I must admit..." Hood went on, a sly grin showing over the rim of the mug he raised to drink from. The glimmer that lit up in his eye when he stretched sentences out was nothing short of unsettling.

"... Your dad's pretty impressive when it comes to keeping up. Guess it's that super-soldier serum that rejuvenates his stamina, eh? If he weren't your father I'd recommend you seek him out... _Hmm_," His brows knit as a new thought brewed in his diseased brain.

"I guess I'm kinda like your stepmom if you think about it."

"Oh my _god_, Hood. _Jesus Christ_!" Rose dragged her hand through her hair, all of her disgust unable to show on her face. She almost threw up then and there, that idea was just too much to imagine. Exactly what the actual _hell_ was wrong with Jason's counterpart?

"Where is Slade anyways? He's usually hovering around you and your sweetheart."

"He's... he's out on a mission with Joseph." Rose blinked rapidly, still trying to get that image of Hood and her own _father_ out of her head but she feared it may be burned there forever. Now that she was on the topic, what the actual _hell_ was wrong with her 52 dad? Sure, Jason was unreasonably attractive but... _but_...

"Huh." Hood swished half a mouthful of coffee in his cheek for a moment before swallowing and replying.

"Joey's hot too. Absolutely 100% would do. Like, I don't usually go blond but he's on my list of future rebounds."

Rose wanted to punch him. She really did. Every word out of his mouth just screamed for her knuckles to make contact with his skull and break it. Her fists closed tighter, regulating her breathing into a controlled calm rhythm.

"Don't you think it _upsets_ Roy that you're constantly going on about shacking up with everyone under the sun?" The question on everyone's mind, she was sure. She wouldn't appreciate her own Jason acting like Hood did.

"Nah." He shrugged his shoulders.

"He knows I'm just joking. He's used to my tasteless humour." A little smile flitted on his lips, he lifted the cup to drink once more. At least he was honest about the quality of his so-called _humour_.

"Then why is Roy mad at you?"

Hood shrugged again, the nature of his smile flickering a bit between lie and genuine, obviously not willing to indulge her in this topic. Odd, he was perfectly happy to talk about sexing her father and brother just a moment ago. She'd assumed nothing was off limits.

"We gotta talk about Sheila, Rose." Wow. Rapid change of topic.

"AK says he doesn't want-"

"_I_ _know_." She ran her hand over her face, exhaling deeply.

"But part of him is intrigued... And that could be a problem if she's anything like _your_ mother."

Hood watched her, noting her stressed out state. His glee from before faded like the veil it was, he was completely down to Earth serious at last. He was almost a separate person once the jokes and snide remarks peeled away.

"I wouldn't have mentioned Sheila had I known AK had no idea about her. I'm sorry for that." His abnormally bright green eyes gazed into her single blue one with such severity that she couldn't help but believe he meant that, his recent behaviour aside.

"And I was actually gonna go scout her out and make sure she's not a threat." Hood continued, setting the mug on the counter with a clink of china on marble. With the same hand, he removed his gun from the holster ever-present on his hip. The weapon was a matte black glock with a crimson EKG line running the length of the barrel for artistic flare. Mentally, Rose whistled through her teeth. Damn, that was a sweet firearm.

"And if she is a threat?" Rose arched an inquisitive brow, tipping her head a fraction. Again, he met her eye but instead of replying, he fluidly loaded an unused clip into the gun, cocking it and spinning it back into his holster. A true gunslinger, he did it without sparing the weapon a cautionary glance out of distrust for his coordination.

"Then I'll make us even. If she's anything like the version I know, she's better in a coffin." He spoke with grave sincerity, head bowed as he reloaded his other glock with more care than the other, presumably to avoid visual contact with her as it had already been established he didn't have to look to make it seem easy to work these things.

'Til now, Rose hadn't seen a version of the Red Hood who wasn't all jokes and flirty lingering gazes, and for just a moment, she wasn't sure how to react to it. She could finally tell that this matter was close to the heart for Hood, more than he let on to begin with, and when she paused to think about it, she understood. Her Jason told her this one was beaten three quarters to death while his mother stood by, smoking a cheap cigarette and unaffected as she watched.

"I'll go with you, Hood." She said, breaking the silence on her part. Rose wasn't fond of Hood but she knew she would kick herself if something happened to him, not that this mission was dangerous as of current knowledge but _still_.

He turned to her with mild surprise on his features, but he screwed it up to look like a distant relative of amusement.

"You're not worried about leaving AK alone to find out we ran off together?"

"He won't think that." She rolled her eyes. Fucking Hood and his all-around personality. Why was she worried again?

"Where's Roy? He can watch my Jason while we're out."

"I'll get him." Hood went by, headed to a part of the house he didn't appear to have any difficulty getting to. Good to know he'd familiarised himself with the place.

Stuffing her hands into her pockets, Rose closed her eyes for a moment, squeezing them shut against the ache in her brain. She would have to leave Jason a note so he wouldn't worry, he'd just be all squirrelly if her absence was a message passed on from Roy. Her handwriting was the only thing he'd settle for.

She sighed, really hoping this Sheila woman was just an ordinary medical practitioner with a very good reason for abandoning her infant with a couple of crack addicts.

* * *

"Hmm." Laying on his belly by the edge of an apartment block, the Hood frowned to himself, holding his chin between his thumb and index as he lowered the binoculars. It was like deja vu, watching that blonde woman across the street, except this time with hindsight's 20/20 power on his side. He knew he had to be careful.

Sheila appeared to be on a harmless coffee run to the cafe across the street from Gotham Central Hospital, perhaps using up her lunch break to fill her lungs with something other than sterilised air and the stench of blood on the operating table. Not that the city with all of its pollution was that much fresher. 

She was wearing a coat over her mint green scrubs, her familiar blonde curls done up in a messy ponytail with strands escaping to frame her face. She looked the same as she did then, just a bit older and lacking that glimmer of the devil in her eye. She really made it look convincing that she was a harmless trauma surgeon here and truthfully, Jason hoped that was so, no matter how therapeutic nailing her a bullet in the head might be.

Off to his side, Rose shifted from elbow to elbow, adjusting her weight as she watched. Kitted out to the nines in full Ravager attire, Jason would admit, his counterpart's fiancee looked _stunning_ with her avalanche of snowy hair tumbling down sleek black and red armour with a beautiful contrast. Unlike his version of Ravager mark three, she didn't bother with the Deathstroke themed balaclava, and that was good to see. Her distinction between her father and her own identity in the mask community was clear and defined. Instead, a black fitted metal guard with a white lens went over the eye that was missing from her skull, tricking her opponents into believing she didn't have a blind side.

A sizeable bazooka rested between her shoulder blades, strapped to her back in place of the swords he was so used to nearly decapitating him. On her thigh, a large energy based gun that looked straight outta Star Wars was strapped tight to the firm muscle, all of it making her a sight to fear and stand in awe of, although that last part might not be intentional.

AK did alright for himself as far as a life partner went. But Jason would never say that to his face.

"Where did you get teleportation equipment from, by the way, Rose?" Jason glanced at her, finally presenting the question that had been on his mind since they beamed from Athens to Gotham in a heartbeat.

"Daddy gave me a teleportation device for my birthday." She replied as casually as if that was totally normal. Well, for the Wilsons, it was as normal as it got.

"And _this_." Rose gestured over her shoulder to the bazooka Jason had already taken his sweet time to admire, the fantastic bulk of the huge weapon glinting underneath the overhead sun. It could take out an entire floor of apartments in a breeze.

"How thoughtful of him." Jason returned his attention to Sheila, now crossing the street back towards the hospital entrance with a cardboard cup in her left hand and her right one pushed into her pocket. He lifted the binoculars over his eyes, commencing spying on her.

"Has AK ever told you it's adorable that you call Slade 'daddy'?" Jason was genuinely curious because if not, then someone had to. It was so fucking cute.

"Something I'm sure we have in common." Rose murmured, focusing the ninety-nine of her attention span on his alternate mother's comings and goings.

"Nice one." Jason smirked, rolling the dial of the binoculars as he zoomed into Sheila's back for the last few seconds they could see her for, before she disappeared back into the building.

"Let's go, stepdaughter."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sniff* I missed these characters. I love Rose and Hood teaming up so badly.


	3. The Freak Homunculus

It was eight AM when Jason wandered drowsily from the bedroom, bumping into _only_ two walls along the passageway. He was slumped over, arms nearly dragging on the ground, he was sure. He rarely woke up as tired as then and he blamed it entirely on Hood's aggravating presence draining the will to live from his soul. Damn cretin... hopefully, the idiot fucked off to his own universe already to focus on solving his problems with Roy instead of getting involved in everyone else's business.

His priorities could do with some manual resetting. 

Jason trailed idly through the house in his search for Rose, absently wondering where she had gone when he stumbled upon one redhead in the kitchen, one redhead who did not belong in this dimension, especially not making breakfast at the stove. Pancakes, by the smell of it.

Frowning, Jason's gaze swept the room and took in its emptiness. There didn't appear to be anyone but them here. Immediately, an arrow of anxiety shot straight down his spine as he realised Rose wasn't in the house. He worried despite the rational part of him that was confident she couldn't be that far. The rational part didn't have a voice nearly as vocal as the other three in his head.

**"Where's Hoodsie and Rosie, me wonders? Mayhaps that girlie decided she wants the version of you that's not all doolally?"**

**"<strike>This was really only a matter of time, little wing. You couldn't expect her to put up with your screwy head forever when she could cut that all out</strike>." **

_"But isn't Hood gay?"_

**"<strike>He's bi with a stronger romantic and sexual inclination towards men than women. Try to keep up, Robin. Bisexuality has a spectrum</strike>."**

_"Oh... Well, I still don't think Rose would do something like that." _

**"<strike>You're like, three-years-old, shut up. This is between the adults</strike>."**

**"Don't be mean, bluebird. Baby doesn't understand.** **And if we're having a debate here, I think Hoodie is pansexual. Do we really think there's anything he won't get horizontal with?"**

_"Everyone please just be quiet. We're tryna think."_

**"...<strike> Okay, but Joker has a point. Let's just agree there</strike>."**

"Morning, Jay." Roy said warily over his shoulder as he heard Jason's feather-light footsteps pass through the doorway. Roy's dark red hair was pulled out of his eyes in a scruffy ponytail, bringing out his shamrock coloured eyes against his pale skin, skin so pale it bordered on sickly. If Jason recalled correctly, he was a bit more tan the last time they saw one another and it was gloomy stormy _Autumn_ then. With it being spring now, Roy shouldn't be quite so white, Jason was sure. To further his worrying appearance, bags so dark they were close to solid black ringed his eyes beneath, a testament to several nights without adequate sleep.

"Rose went out with my Jason. They didn't say where though." Ginger went on, gesturing to a note stuck to the fridge with a magnet but instead of following the indication, Jason's gaze remained riveted on Roy's hand, curled lightly around the handle of the frying pan, which he was using to turn the pancake's pasty tone to a rich brownish-gold.

"You look sick." Jason quietly informed him once he stopped staring, no longer that invested in where Rose and his doppelganger went. It's like his mind tunnel-visioned in on the one thing before him.

"I'm not sick. I'm stressed." Was the reply but nonetheless, Jason placed his palm over gingersnap's brow, trapping the unruly tendrils of hair that refused to be tied. He was cool to the touch, no flush of fever or the warmth that came with sickness. 

"What are you stressed about?" He asked, lowering his hand with a confused tilt of his head. Ginger watched the pan, slowly turning a pancake onto its uncooked side before he replied.

"_Life_?" He posed it as a question, shrugging his shoulders like he wasn't quite certain. He wouldn't meet Jason's line of sight even in the form of a glance, fixated by the pancakes before him and he gave off the vibe that he was purposefully avoiding visual contact. Jason's brow furrowed. That wasn't like ginger, not at all. What did he think meeting gazes would cost him? 

"Did Hood say something stupid on your anniversary?" AK pressed the investigation because he was worried about his friend. He didn't like seeing Roy down this way, not when he was once the sole person in an unfamiliar dimension who reached out and tried to help Jason. It meant all his senses switched to high alert when he could return the favour.

And ginger never brought up any of the things Jason did to purposefully hurt him, both physically and emotionally, there was no limit to the things he could do in return. 

"No. Jason didn't do anything." Gingersnap switched the stove off and push the pan to cool on the cold hot plates behind, yet avoiding eye contact at any cost. Jason tried to move around him so they could face but Roy turned, staging the movement as him putting the plate of pancakes onto the table.

Reaching out, Jason caught his wrist and rotated him back around, disliking the way Roy stiffened beneath his touch as if he was bracing himself for the worst.

"Then who did what?" Jason really only needed the name and he would take some knee caps for doorsteps. He couldn't stand the idea of some shithead saying or doing something upsetting to ginger, Roy was simply too nice for that.

"I'm the only person who fucked up. No one else is at fault." It was impossible to miss the tension in his shoulders, weighing his head down. He sighed hopelessly, gaze falling heavily to the ground as he insistently did. Jason was quite sure a knife like the non-metaphorical ones Joker used to push into him was screwing into his heart.

Jason's hand glided up from Roy's wrist and both of them settled on his shoulders. He was a bit bigger than the archer, his frame broader and muscle structure more defined, but on this time, ginger felt flimsier between his palms than ever before.

"Talk to me." He said gently, the likes of which could rarely be associated with the terrifying Arkham Knight.

"What's wrong? I kinda hate it when you're all gloomy and sad."

Roy gave another exhale and shrug, but his shoulders slumped a little in defeat. He was too tired to fight this.

"Sit down. It's a long story."

Jason nodded, drawing out a chair by the table with a quiet scrape and indicating for Roy to settle himself. While he did, Jason moved around the item of furniture and took a seat opposite the archer, placing his hands flat on the top as he waited for Roy to talk. He thought about helping himself to those pancakes tempting him on the plate but maybe later. Now seemed like a bad time to be distracted by food.

Roy shifted uncomfortably beneath Jason's unyielding gaze as if waiting for a teleprompter to tell him when to speak and what to say.

"Uh, I... Me and Jason - _my_ Jason - were on a mission two weeks ago. It was... Our anniversary."

Jason hummed in understanding.

"Uh-huh. Hood mentioned that. What's it got to do with anything?"

"Listen, Jaybird. Let me explain." Roy reached out and took a pancake as he spoke, but not to eat; he nervously yet methodically picked the edges into little crumbs.

"We were on a mission and... You see, we busted a big drug trafficking ring of Black Mask's, took out a lot of bad guys and saved even more lives in the process. It was tough to pull off but it went smoothly, to begin with. We were tying up the loose ends, chatting about what we had planned for the evening. Jason wanted to go home and make dinner, I kept telling him it was our fourth anniversary and we should do something special. Go see a movie, eat out, normal couple stuff. And then, while we were distracted..." Roy's voice trailed off as the distance in his eyes grew, reliving whatever it was that happened. Unconsciously, he tore off bigger pieces the pancake with his now shaking fingers. Jason became more and more anxious as he watched.

".... One of the goons wasn't knocked out as long as we estimated. Our conversation meant neither of us noticed him until we heard the click of the gun and... He shot at us... but Jason took the bullet. It... It sank straight into his helmet and cracked the metal clean through." Roy swallowed heavily with a shuddering breath. Seems like something he would have mentioned but Hood didn't look like he took a headshot recently... He was just as obnoxious as always.

"I took out the shooter. Jason was down, his hood was broken, his... His hair was matted with blood. I... I thought he was _dead_." Tears welled in his pine green eyes, he blinked rapidly and Jason wanted to say something comforting, but that wasn't his strong suit. Far from it and right now, he hated his inability to interact like a normal human. He was going to try saying something but couldn't before Roy continued, his voice shaky and unstable.

"You saw Jay, he was alright, of course, but for those thirty seconds that I thought he was dead..." Again, he trailed off though this time, he unconsciously rubbed at the part of his arm where Jason knew he had the scars of old track marks, his movements uncoordinated. He was beginning to understand.

"You didn't relapse, did you?"

Suddenly, ginger looked up, features riddled with the strain of stress and alarm.

"_No_. Thank God, _no_. I - I _wanted_ to but I didn't. I was already craving the damn heroin before I could get to Jason. I pulled him into my arms, shook him... I was crying, but then... He started waking up and I realised he wasn't dead; he was stunned. The bullet stopped a _quarter_ of a centimetre from his head... because of the helmet." At some point, while he explained the traumatic incident, ginger lowered his head into his hand and the memories caused his shoulders to vibrate with tiny tremors. Jason nipped at his lip, weighing the option of touching Roy and not. He wasn't sure how to respond here.

"I - I thought Jason was _dead_. He almost was. You'd think after something like that, I'd attach myself like a limpet to him... We've almost died so many times but it was different... I don't know why." Another hopeless sigh trembled past his lips. Jason could no longer keep his hands to himself; he reached out and placed one over Roy's. It was cold and clammy, lacking everything generally associated with the health of mind and body.

"It was your anniversary then. It fucks with your head to be talking about what you wanna do to celebrate one sec then the next, Hood gets shot in the head and you have to think he died right in front of you." Jason tried to explain it in a way that was easy to understand, but he wasn't sure he was making any sense. This wasn't what he was good at.

Roy parted his fingers enough to look through them, directly into Jason's eyes.

"It's not even just _that_. You know what kind of _jokes_ he makes. Once he recovered a little, he made this remark that _at least_ I noticed he was dead this time." 

Jason cringed. He understood what Hood referenced at once and it was a really in-character bitch thing to say. That time he dimension skipped and took on Hood's identity for a spell, he tricked Roy into believing he was his boyfriend. The archer took a while to realise Jason wasn't that freak homunculus he slept with.

Hood deserved that, he always had, but Jason regretted the masquerade because it hurt Roy. But Hood genuinely didn't hold a grudge towards his ginger cookie for it all, so Jason could be sure about one thing.

"I'm sure Hood didn't mean it like that. You know he has fucked up jokes."

"The problem is that it _was_ a joke. He doesn't get that I was fucking petrified I was gonna lose him and... I just can't talk to him about it since it's no big deal to him." Roy was all over the place, Jason couldn't help but notice, and he wasn't making a lot of sense but that was only further proof of how rattled up the whole thing made him.

"Hood's been dead _twice_, gingersnap, the whole finality of it has lost its power to him but he'll take it seriously if you _talk_ with him. He's a slut but he loves you, he _will_ listen." Jason was confident in that as Hood did have it in him to be serious but if not, then he would simply break his doppelganger's legs if he didn't comply.

The chair scraped against the stone floor as Jason lifted himself and walked around the table to Roy. He bent over him to wrap his arms around without an invitation or request for it, he just felt like it was appropriate. Roy seemed like he really needed it, because if he didn't, surely he wouldn't have leaned a fraction into Jason?

With that, Ginger appeared to calm down, if only a little, and that might be because AK bet he was easier to talk to than that empty-headed Hood.

"Thank you, Jason."

* * *

"Ah, _crap_." Rose cursed as she stared at the weather forecast predicting the next week from now as solid storm clouds. The waiting room chair creaked as Hood leaned to see what she was looking at and she tilted the phone screen in his direction to avoid him coming any nearer.

"It's raining on my wedding day." 

Hood frowned at the three animated dark clouds and lightning bolts hovering above the predictions.

"Looks like a tropical storm is blowing over." He mused, a small frown knitting his brows closer together.

"You gotta reschedule."

"_Can't_." Rose exhaled through her nose, dropping the phone back into her pocket. The last time she checked the forecast, her wedding day was cloudy but no rain, much less a storm. This last-minute change really fucked everything up.

"Can't reschedule on such short notice."

"It's not that complicated if it isn't gonna be a big event." Hood murmured, turning his attention to the nurses passing in the hallway. He surveyed them idly but took in every detail to its smallest imperfection, brain downloading the information automatically the way Batman taught him. Rose knew this because Deathstroke had taught her in a similar way.

"Unless... Rose, do you _want_ a big event?" Hood turned in the seat again, brows raised in question. She sighed, resting her chin in her hand and blowing a lock of hair from her face. How did this idiot catch on?

"I don't want a _massive_ thing." She admitted, a little reluctant to part with information. And yet she did it anyway, mostly unbidden.

"But... I wish we didn't have to sneak around. Jason's scared, I understand that he doesn't want to risk anyone ruining our wedding but... I know he's going to be all paranoid and twitchy, he won't calm down enough to enjoy a day that's supposed to be the best one of his life." Maybe Rose didn't mean to tell _Hood_ that much, especially not the fine details of what she was worried about, but she... Just needed someone to talk to.

"Invite your dad." Hood told her.

"No one's gonna stand a chance of breaking in and ruining a thing then."

"He is _invited_, I just don't think he's coming." Again, she exhaled, watching through half narrowed eyes as people came and went, completely oblivious to the hired gun and international outlaw dwelling in their midst. She wondered how they would react if they knew. She also wondered where Jason's mother was. Surely, her shift ended soon?

"_What_? He might be awful in every sense of the word but he's not gonna skip his baby girl's wedding day."

"Dad hasn't responded to my invite and we haven't spoken in a month despite me trying to contact him. I don't think he wants me getting married." 

Hood frowned with a confused hum, tipping his head a fraction to one side. He did that when he was thinking, she had observed, and her Jason did it too. An obsessive, subconscious habit they shared. Maybe he was attempting to imagine why her father wouldn't want her to be happy and quite honestly, she was too. She tried to ask Joey what was wrong with Slade this time but he wasn't really being communicative or forthcoming, so she gave up in that department too.

But she hoped at least her brother might show up to the happiest day of her life.

"Have you talked to AK about this?"

"No." Rose shook her head warily, blinking heavily.

"I don't want to add to his anxiety. This is my problem anyway." 

"... _Jesus Christ_." Hood scoffed with an eye roll, turning in the seat in a way that meant he threw his legs over one side, his dusty boots almost hitting her thighs. She jumped a little, startled by his sudden erratic movement. He knit his fingertips together and leaned forward with an authoritative expression deceptively close to his flip-of-a-card serious side.

"Listen here, sweetness, your stepmom's about to lay some words of wisdom down on your pretty little head. You and AK are gonna get fucking _married_, that diminishes the exclusivity of issues the two of you have, as in sharing a life, you share the good and the bad. You won't function long if it's just the sunshine you let one another in on 'cause UV light gets cancerous if it's 24/7." Hood didn't even pause during the sentence, staring intently into her eyes. Given that Hood died at fifteen, it made sense that he was emotionally stunted but no, not this time, he seemed to know exactly what he was talking about and Rose did hear the logic behind his words. But...

"He's already got so many problems. I don't want to overload him with mine." 

"Are you selectively deaf? Did you not hear me? With that logic, you warp your relationship from fiancee to caretaker. You're not that, AK doesn't want you to be that and you shouldn't either. You can't 'fix' him with just unconditional love and sunshine, that's not how life works. Just like you won't kill him by letting him in on what's on your mind."

Even if it was fucking _Red Hood,_ Rose appreciated him breaking it down for her, but she still couldn't let him see that, so she raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"Aren't you having a miscommunicative quarrel with Roy right now? Clearly, you don't apply your science to your own life."

Hood brushed it off with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"We're like an old married couple, we have our arguments but that's because we don't pretend everything is always perfect. Try that with you and AK, you might be surprised." Before this conversation could go further, a blond doctor with a very tired expression passed by them in the corridor, completely unaware of her long-lost alternate son just a few strides from her. She wasn't wearing a surgical mask around her neck and that same jacket from before was pulled over her scrubs. Looked like she was heading out finally. 

Rose wasn't in on what Hood was planning on doing because he hadn't told her what the plan was, but she did follow after when he pushed out of the seat and shadowed Sheila moments after she was around the corner of the hall. He had a purpose fixed, it showed in the intent way he walked and didn't give passing nurses and visitors observing looks as he usually would.

"Rose," Hood said once they were outside, his gaze locked on his mother as she crossed the road onto the opposing street.

"I'm gonna do something very smart and I need you to play along." As he spoke, vague on the details, he put on the helmet that had been concealed beneath the jacket slung over his arm, and he locked it tightly shut. Before Rose could question what his idiot brain cooked up now, he aimed a sudden and brutal blow at her face.

"What the _fuck_, Hood?!" Rose dodged his kick just barely, his boot splitting the air into two mere inches from taking her head off her shoulders. And he didn't stop there, he moved faster than she to send her reeling towards the ground with a bone-breaking strike her armour absorbed majority of the harmful impact of. Scarcely catching herself, she shot him a leer. By this point, Rose didn't care if he had some elaborate plan in his cooky brain since he succeeded in pissing her off, and she lashed out at full force. 

Thanks to her father's genetic enhancements that he passed onto her, Rose was by all rights a metahuman and her particular favourite advancement was super strength. The kick that caught Hood square in the chest didn't only throw him back, it _threw_ him back like his weight was paper. She realised too late that she sent him straight into the cars passing in the lane beside the hospital. Hood was capable of saving himself any collision, she knew that, _he_ knew that, so whatever came next was due to his own refusal to save himself pain.

Rose winced reflexively as Hood crashed into the windshield of an oblivious red Ford, a shock of cracks bursting across the thick glass as the driver slammed the breaks on, the vehicle behind going for that exact motion to avoid a crash. 

People who had nothing to do with this were staring in horror and some screamed from alarm, no one appeared to have noticed Rose's part over the dramatic way Hood rolled off the car and smacked onto the asphalt. His suit took the most of that impact, he was perfectly able to spring up onto his feet and come at her again, so Rose was a little curious as to why he was acting mortally wounded. He was splayed out on the sidewalk, motionless say for the tiny faked groans from the pain he wasn't feeling. 

Mentally, Rose rolled her eyes. Fucking drama queen. What the hell did it take to make someone like this?

People crowded the scene out of morbid curiosity or concern, and she finally saw what this freakshow reject was doing as among those people, was his mother, though she was a little bit more urgent than them. She shoved them aside to get to Jason without knowing who he was or what angle he was playing at, unaware she was the one being played as she knelt quickly beside him. Sheila was a doctor, she took the Hippocratic oath to do no harm and preserve life, her morals immediately taking over when she fell for Hood's bait.

"You're gonna be okay, honey." Sheila assured in between checking Hood's present vitals and rapidly inspecting the barely existent damage. 

And Rose bet Hood was grinning victoriously under that helmet that momentarily confused his mother.

Fucking homunculus freak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talking to a Jason can be quite therapeutic.


	4. Love Shove

"Stop fucking doing that!" The open cup of ginger's palm smacking across Hood's cheek left a lasting impression in Jason's memory, the dull _thwack_ enough to surprise him almost as much as the action did. The moment they arrived at the hospital after Rose called and briefed them in on the latest stupidity Hood acted out, Roy was mad and rightfully so, seeing as his useless man nearly got run over on purpose.

Despite his head whipping to one side comically, Hood hardly flinched at the hit he should know he earned. Slowly batting his eyes, he raised his hand over the red mark on his jaw. He looked surprised but he would be the only one who was.

"Stop trying to fucking die, _Jason_!" Ginger half yelled, half pleaded with Hood and he didn't care who could hear them. They were behind the closed door of an observation room of the clinic, Hood, Roy, Rose and Jason, the latter two staying off to the side and watching in silence. Jason's doppelganger wasn't wearing his namesake helmet so Jason opted to conceal his appearance instead to avoid any too-deep look into their identicality.

From beneath the slightly tattered trim of his hood, he observed Roy and the idiot as they interacted in this dysfunctional show and at the same time, his hand found Rose's. He had never been so grateful for her than then. Sharing in the sentiment, her fingers squeezed his.

"Did you even _think_ before throwing yourself in front of a fucking _car_?! What if one tiny thing went different and you woulda been ran over? What then, huh, _Jason_?! What am I supposed to do when you kill yourself in a horrible accident?"

Hood would have had multiple opportunities to get a word in but he overlooked them all and stood by, staring at the floor like a guilty puppy finally realising his actions bore consequences on the people around him. Especially the people he kept close to the heart. And Roy might be closer than anyone, not that you would think that just as a bystander.

"You can't play this off as easily as you did getting shot in the head, this was fucking _intentional_ and you still don't realise that some of us actually _care_ whether or not you're dead."

Jason was... Jason was genuinely afraid when gingersnap was mad, mostly because that never naturally happened and when it did, the only few and far apart instances he could recount involved Hood. Ginger wasn't mad at AK when the truth of his extremely harmful masquerade came to light, his alternate version had no hard feelings over being nearly killed in front of his teeny daughter, so it had been Jason's understanding that Roy physically didn't possess the ability to get angry.

Little did he know.

Jason really didn't think he and Rose should be here watching this one-sided rant. It seemed like it should be a private thing.

"- But, _of course_, you don't care that you hold meaning to some of us and therefore feel free to bounce around from carnage to carnage with a painted target on your head, doing nothing to try not getting killed. You're not even fucking suicidal but you genuinely do not _care_." At that point, ginger struck Hood's shoulders and shoved him back a few paces. Roy wasn't calming down, anger like this was a low smouldering blaze that could burn for as long as it had been left to fester.

"And _obviously_, no one else means anything to you or you wouldn't constantly be risking them lifelong misery and heartbreak over your _death_."

At the next attempt to hit him, Hood caught both of Roy's hands and closed his own around them, interlocking their gazes as severely as the darkening of the bruise on his jawbone.

"You done?" He raised a questioning brow. Jason noticed the line of Hood's muscles tensed to remain unmoving against the pressure a glaring Roy pushed onto him. But Roy was the weaker of the two, he wouldn't be overpowering Hood easily.

Narrowing his eyes, Hood tilted his head when his partner didn't add a further word but Roy did grit his teeth and Jason wasn't sure what that meant.

"Can I just tell you I'm _sorry_? That I _don't_ mean to make you worry like this?"

"_No_." Roy bit, far from his commonly non-venomous state. His leer darkened so many shades that it sent a chill down Jason's spine. He just... wasn't used to this version of the archer he'd come to know.

"Because I know you don't mean it."

"Yeah? And how do you know that, dearest?"

"You'd be different if you got it." Again, Roy tried to hit Hood and when he couldn't, he made to yank his hands free but Hood didn't let him go. Biting his lip in irritation, he yanked again and this time, Jason's doppelganger pulled in return, making ginger stumble towards him.

"You wouldn't love me if I was different." Hood insisted as he spun Roy by his wrist then bent the limb behind his back, twisting it just enough to force his partner to bend backwards into Hood's other arm. It was arched, fitting around gingersnap's waist as if designed for that.

Surprised, Roy gasped at the sudden manoeuvre, unable to break Hood's grip while he was barely balancing, his idiot boyfriend the only thing keeping him on his feet. He tried to move, squirming from side to side but he was powerless.

It could almost be perceived as a romantic dip if the context and circumstances were overlooked.

"I don't love _you_, you fucking _psychopath_." Roy's irritated words went muffled since Hood kissed him just then, probably to quieten him but Jason and Rose still made out what he said. For every beat of that kiss he was made to endure, Roy stared at Hood angrily.

Jason and his lady both wondered if they should help the archer out of his captivity in that bent-backwards pose Hood pushed him into, but then, maybe they should just stand aside in silence as they had thus far. Seemed to be working.

"Yes, you do. Don't be dumb." Hood said, none of him believing his partner as he graciously let Roy back up, even going as far as to release his arm from where it was twisted to his spine. He didn't actually _hurt_ Roy, Jason knew because he would have broken Hood's neck if he had. He'd been on the lookout for that.

"If I _loved_ you, why would I want to hit you this badly?" Roy inquired with a leer that didn't seem to be simmering down.

"Love shove?" Hood shrugged. Did he really expect to be taken seriously with that dumbness? _Jesus Christ_, did ninety percent of this man's body go towards storing his garbage ideas while the remaining ten kept him functioning?

"Besides, your whole argument is about you caring about me and not wanting me to die. And that, my _darling_, is very sweet." His intrusive arm snared Roy around his midriff and dragged him to his side, kissing his neck with an exaggerated _mwah_. Affectionately, Hood nuzzled the crook of Roy's shoulder and licked a small wet stripe along his sensitive skin. He repeated it a few times until he forced a tiny smile from Roy, who was extremely _ticklish_ there. Hood knew this and seized advantage.

"Stop it. Get off me." Gingersnap swatted at his boyfriend and tried to push distance between them, except Hood fastened both arms around him tighter and kissed his body more insistently. They both laughed a little, Jason didn't know if that was because Roy was very ticklish or some other reason entirely. He looked less mad, all of a sudden.

"I'll stop once you stop being pissed at me." Hood mumbled into ginger's shoulder, a smile persisting on his mouth.

"Don't hold your breath." Roy wriggled in his grasp, squirming to rid himself of his boyfriend but he was four years too late. They rotated around, face to face and somehow their lips ended up connecting. It was that easy, huh? Maybe ginger just needed to scream at Hood for three minutes straight.

Just then, the door opened and a doctor lady with blond hair and the bluest eyes stepped in, frowning at her clipboard. Freezing, Jason's heart leapt up his throat when he realised that must be _her_. His... His _mother_. _Sheila_.

"Mr Harper," Doctor Mom began, closing the door behind her. Roy looked up when he heard his name spoken but it quickly became clear she was addressing Hood. Two-bit liar gave a false alias, didn't he?

"You don't appear to have attained any significant damage but some abnormalities showed up in your bloodwork - _oh_." Sheila's eyes fell upon the people in the room she hadn't noticed when coming in; Roy, Rose, and _Jason_, Sheila's own son.

"Are you family?" She asked, confused as her gaze travelled between them. She looked at Jason and then straight through as if he was nothing to her. It wasn't until a few moments that he remembered he _wasn't_ anything to her. They were two strangers from two entirely different branches of life. She was a doctor, he was an internationally wanted terrorist. Wouldn't momma be proud?

"He's my _boyfriend_." Hood said, tugging Roy nearer to him with a wink and smirk. Over ginger's shoulder, Hood gestured to Jason and Rose.

"And they're friends."

Sheila nodded, quickly giving them another visual sweep before returning her attention to her patient.

"Were they with you at the cosplay convention?" The _what_? Jason nearly choked on those words from her mouth before he realised why Hood must have told that lie to their mother. He needed to explain the helmet and suit somehow, didn't he? Good thing Hood was such a _talented_ liar.

"No. We planned to meet up after, that's about the time I got hit by the car." Hood explained, lying every word through his teeth.

"... Witnesses say you were thrown at the vehicle." Sheila was sceptical as she surveyed him, a not-uncommon trait but Jason recognised it in himself too. Would it be naive to believe he inherited anything from her? Well, they had the same eyes, so there was that, but they didn't appear to have anything else in common. Just her eyes were a few shades lighter than his, they matched her fair skin and pale blond hair. With her tiny dainty body beside his toned example of peak human physical condition, one wouldn't think they were so closely related.

"The car still hit me, didn't it? Doesn't matter how I ended up in its path."

"It matters to the police. They want to take a statement."

"Nah, I'm good, thanks." He insisted as he detached himself from Roy's side and stepped past Sheila, on his way out of the room. He was walking just fine, by the way, one could never guess he was hit by a car speeding down the street. Though with his concealed armour and Lazarus Pit infused DNA, any potential damage was automatically minimal.

"_Where_ are you going?" Sheila tried to take Hood's shoulder but he twisted out of her grasp with admirably quick reflexes, bending almost all the way around until something in his skeletal structure stopped him going full circle.

"_Chill_, Doctor Haywood, I'm just gonna go grab some M&Ms from the vending machine down the hall. Roy, _my_ _love_," Tipping his head and smiling sweetly, Hood extended his hand towards his partner like an invitation.

"Come with me, please?"

Exhaling and rolling his eyes, Roy caved quickly as he accepted Hood's offered hand and allowed himself to be lead out of the room before Doctor Mom could get another word in. Sheila was visibly a little dumbfounded by this level of negligence and little did she know who he got that from. _Willis_, definitely... _hopefully_ it was Willis.

And then Jason found himself alone with Rose and Sheila, all of them equally unsure of what to say or do. Hood set them up but it was arguable whether or not he absolutely had to get run over to do it, and that left his doppelganger wondering if Hood was incredibly dumb or operating on a higher level of reality than they were capable of comprehending.

His vote was not on the latter.

"Come find me if he comes back." Sheila instructed and Jason took specific note of the 'if' part of that. Perhaps she had met Hood's type... although considering she'd met and spent some quality time with the idiot's father, it was to be expected.

"Yes, ma'am." Rose bobbed her head as Sheila left with an exhausted sigh brought on by her idiot patients and her unappreciated role in caring for them.

Seeing that Jason would be perfectly comfortable staying in his anxious and frightened state instead of pursuing his mother, Rose shoved him rather forcefully in the direction of the door. When he shot her a look of confusion over his shoulder, she hissed at him.

"_Get_. Hood got hit by a car for this."

"After _you_ _kicked_ him under it. And he wasn't even hurt-"

"That's not the point. If you back out of this, I'm not marrying you."

Jason stared at her.

"_Really_, Rose? _Really_?" Even as he spoke, a tad frustrated, he showed himself out but glared at her every step of the way. She knew he didn't want to run the risk of her being serious here, thus twisting his arm until there was only one direction he was allowed to move in. And that involved... his mother.

"I didn't even want to come here." Jason muttered bitterly to himself as he lurked along the hallway Sheila went down. Now, he wasn't entirely opposed to talking to her, he just didn't know what that conversation would look like and it might be easier to ignore the blood bonds because life was too damn complicated. Doctors and war criminals were quite a world apart, blood was the only thing they shared.

Maybe he should ignore the memories that didn't exist, futures that wouldn't ever occur, and years that came from nowhere. There was nothing there.

"... _And where do you think we'd be if you originally told Slade and Rose to fuck off like you wanted to? And if you made 52-Bruce and gingersnap and Hood leave you alone? Face it, AK, we'd be dead_."

**"Birdie's got a point, other-Birdie, and you know I hate to admit it. Can't we do some world building and make life at least a ** ** _little_ ** ** bit interesting? You're so boring now that you're retired."**

**"<strike>He's not retired, Joker, he just couldn't handle being a mask because it got too scary</strike>."**

"Can the three of you just fucking shut up for _one_ damn hour?" While he walked, Jason rubbed circles into his temples with his fingertips, willing for a way to have only his thoughts in his head instead of sharing it with three other people.

_"Just think about where we'd be if you'd never risked trusting anyone. Not everyone is a smokescreen."_

"Yes,_ thank you_, Robin, I got it. Now go be a traumatised kid while I try to string together an intelligent sentence." If he sounded irritated, he refused to be blamed for it, not when these voices wouldn't leave him alone.

_"... Why are you so mean to me?"_

"Because you aren't real and therefore what you feel is the equivalent of absolutely nothing."

**"There's definitely something self-reflective about the way you treat the delusional figment of your child self. Maybe you should focus on that at some point?"**

_"You know he doesn't do self-reflection, Dick. I know this. He knows this. We all know this. It is known."_

**"<strike>Damn. You know, you are </strike>** <strike> _ **really** _ </strike> **<strike> bitchy sometimes, little wing</strike>."**

"_Go_. _Away_. All of you. I'm trying to do something." With two hands, Jason removed the hood of his sweatshirt and cupped a hand over the J-scar that stuck out clear as day. He wasn't sure what to do about it, it was a real eyesore Sheila might find repulsive. He didn't want his own mother to think that way of him.

Maybe if he just told her it was really advanced movie-set grade effects makeup? No... that was dumber than all of Hood's thoughts combined.

But he didn't have the time to think of a better lie before he almost stepped onto her in the hall, fumbling with her chain of keys for the one that opened the door to the staff room. She didn't pay him any attention, he may need to say something to gain it.

"Uhm... excuse me, ma'am?" Twisting his fingers anxiously, Jason stood before the dainty woman as if she were a mythical beast with fangs dripping poison. Surprised, she turned while she pulled her latex gloves off by the fingers, shoving the keys into her pockets.

"Can I help you, young man?" Her blonde brows knit, her surgical glove coming off with a sharp snap. This close, he could see the lines around her eyes and mouth, a testament to her age, but they looked more like smile lines than wrinkles.

Nervously, Jason's gaze flitted up to her. He was taller by a whole foot and a half but he still found it difficult to maintain visual contact. Looking up was a weight untold, heavy as if a sea of anchors demanded he stared at the floor like a petrified deer. With his hood now off, she didn't appear to recognise him as the guy from the room earlier and maybe his scar and her confusion didn't make her immediately realise he was identical to Hood.

"Mh... I'm really sorry to bother you but, uh... my... my name's Jason Todd and I think you... you might be my... m - mother." There was no natural way to ease into that and Jason was well aware he came nowhere close to believable, especially not when there wasn't a chance she would just go ahead and believe him, which made him wonder why he was here at all. And yet, he searched her face for her reaction, that teeny desperate Robin-part of him that never died hopelessly praying she wouldn't call him a liar or crazy. He didn't know why Robin wanted that when they'd survived this long without Sheila Haywood, but it would hurt if the outcome was as he expected. It really would.

For a heartbeat that lasted every single agonising second, Sheila stared at him as if what he said went unheard and he was just standing there like a dumb idiot. But then her eyes widened and her coral-pink lips parted millimetres into a gape with a fish outta water effect. The healthy pallor drained from her face, her knuckles shone white through her skin as her hands clenched crushingly around the latex gloves.

"... _Jason_?" Sheila got his name out with obvious hardship, so much effort going towards it that it was almost like she made a vow to herself to never speak it aloud. Yet she got over the hurdle and used his name with a familiarity that sparked in her eyes. That tense ice ball of anxiousness in Jason's chest melted a few degrees when she didn't call security to throw out the madman.

He nodded a little sheepishly.

"Y - yeah."

Sheila's lips transformed from the thin line to the most confused smile Jason had ever beheld, he found it gave him the strength to mimic something shy and cautiously optimistic that was close to her expression. A dam of sheer relief burst within him, water barely gushing down the empty ravine before she suddenly threw herself at him, wrapping herself around him so tight she might squeeze the life out. They almost crashed to the ground under the force of her embrace. Her arms didn't fit all the way around him but Jason didn't think he'd ever been hugged with so much emotion.

"My baby! I can't believe it's you!" Sheila had Jason's arms powerlessly pinned to his sides, her head pressed to his chest and he couldn't comprehend why her mascara was suddenly running despite the fact that Jason had thought she was happy initially.

Standing on her toes, she kissed his neck and cheek rapidly, _desperately_, smearing her lipstick across both of their faces. Within seconds, she made them such a mess of tears and makeup and emotions, emotions that Jason didn't come prepared to deal with. He wasn't sure what possessed him to cave and hug her back. Hug _his_ _mother_ back.

A firestorm of rampant emotions he didn't quite understand blazed through him and blinded him to the busy hospital hallway teeming with staring eyeballs.

"I love you, darling. I love you _so_ much." When she could pry her lips off him, Sheila whispered half insensibly into his neck, clinging to him like life itself. The tears hadn't ceased to fall, tumbling down her cheeks and leaving glistening trails. She sniffled and squeezed him for every ounce of strength in her body.

Jason didn't have the words with which to respond, he didn't know what they would be, he just held onto her, burying his face in her hair. It was a beautiful silent moment of bliss that passed until Hood walked by in the background with his M&Ms where Sheila could see him. And then dots both connected and refused to.

"Jason... who is that?" She frowned deeply with mascara still wet on her cheeks, pulling a foot away with her hands remaining on her son's shoulders. Her eyes tracked every bit of Hood's movement, Jason turned a fraction to notice the idiot was tossing M&Ms high in the air to catch in his mouth like a trained animal.

"He looks exactly like you and... I think I'd remember giving birth to twins."

Jason sighed, warily watching as his doppelganger started choking on one of the hard candies that got caught in his throat and Roy had to go save him. As usual.

"_That_, mother, is a very long story."

* * *

"So... let me get this straight," Head in her hands, cheeks blown out, Sheila rubbed her temples as she sat slumped over on the edge of the park bench, just a stone's throw from the hospital's main entrance.

"... You have an _alternate dimension doppelganger_ that pops up randomly and _that's_ the thing I saw that's choking on M&Ms and getting hit by cars?"

Nodding, Jason gave a low hum. Sheila lived in Gotham, she'd seen crazier shit than what he described.

"Yes, essentially. He's also a demented whore with a death fetish."

"Don't use that word, Jason." Sheila scolded him without lifting her head, her voice worn out when she was just very overwhelmed. He understood, of course, but she didn't know the half of it. Wait until she found out about Batman and Robin, Joker and Deathstroke, the Arkham Knight, all of it. Wait for the moment she discovered the psychological and physical torture he spent every hour of 433 days subjected to and what it did to him. The voices, the panic attacks, flashbacks, dissociation, Jason was worried about how his mother might take it all. Could she take a fraction of it? Bit by bit, he would eventually find out.

If she chose to stay, that is. It was unreasonable to expect her to want anything to do with him in the long run. A handful of people did.

But there was something else pressing a deeper indentation on his mind. Shifting in the bench with his arm slung over the backrest, Jason gazed towards the hospital building, its white walls turning yellowy with the setting sun.

"Sheila... why did you leave me alone with dad?"

At his question, Sheila raised her head from her cradle of hands, looking to him in a way that told him she'd been anticipating him to ask that but wasn't eager to get into it. But she wouldn't deny him that bit of history.

"... Medical school is... _expensive_, Jason." She sighed as she began, sitting up straight and fixing her gaze on her curled hands resting over her thighs.

"Your grandparents thought it was a waste of time, they weren't willing to pitch in but somehow, I managed to get enrolled anyway, and going behind my parents' back meant I had to pay for everything. I worked four jobs on top of school but it still wasn't cutting it. I was desperate and an associate mentioned it and I... Started making money at night." Sheila adjusted her weight uncomfortably as it registered with Jason what she meant. _Oh_... execrated sexual experiences, so they did have more in common than just the colour of their eyes. Good to know.

"That's how I met your father. He was working for Two-Face, he offered me money he knew I needed and our... _transaction_ went unremarkably but it was exam week, I was very distracted and I... I must've skipped a pill because, well..." She motioned to Jason beside her with a sweep of her hand, simultaneously wiping something from her eye. He didn't understand why she was crying again, only that he may have gotten his instability from her.

"It's not that I didn't want to have you." Sheila sniffed and cleared her throat as she straightened her curved spine again.

"I just... I wasn't in the right place in my life, which - which is _stupid_ to say now, seeing as how I put myself in that position and you should have come first but... I-"

"It's okay, I get it." Jason assured her and he meant it. He was a little bit older now than his mother was then and he couldn't imagine something living depending on him 24/7 for the next eighteen or so years. He understood whatever choice she made that meant he didn't grow up with her.

"Your father said he would take you. He worked for Two-Face, he had _money_, I - I thought he could take better care of you than me. He wasn't my initial choice, of course, I tried to get my parents to help but first I disobeyed them then got pregnant, they weren't in a very loving mood."

Grimly, Jason nodded. If her parents were the same Haywoods he was thinking about, then they would be the wealthy aristocrats with an internationally successful clothing line and more than enough money to lend their daughter to care for their grandchild. What little he knew of them, he could draw the conclusion that they were stuck up pricks with no interest in anything not immediately beneficial and this just proved it.

And they lived a short distance down the road from here. If he had Rose's bazooka on hand, he might be able to hit them with a well-earned missile.

"So your father got you. He promised to keep you safe and separate from his business with Two-Face on the condition that we part ways. I didn't want to but I thought it was for the best. I didn't have anything to do with you or him after that." Again, she sniffed, roughly palming at her eyes and subsequently smudging her already smeared makeup. Sheila turned back to Jason, trying to hide the heaviness in her gaze by fixing her hair up a bit with her hands.

"But Willis did let me name you. I'm surprised he didn't change it, though." She tried to offer a small silver lining and Jason appreciated her for that, he'd had enough of depressing stuff for one day. Any more of it and he couldn't keep his brain from forming what-if scenarios.

"_You_ named me?" He smiled faintly.

"I like my name. Thank you."

Sheila returned his smile as slightly as he offered it, sweeping tendrils of blond curls behind her ear haphazardly. He could tell that comment made her happy.

"I... I hoped you would. I've always loved that name. _Jason_, like in the Odyssey. I wanted to name my first baby that."

"I hope I did the Odyssey justice." He meant that as a joke when of course, he knew Sheila never would have wanted her heartfelt name to belong to a criminal like him.

"You did, sweetheart." Sheila leaned forward and closed her arms around him again, their cheeks touching at the proximity. Usually, he hated strangers touching him but with her... It didn't feel wrong or bad. It was familiar.

"And I'm so sorry for all of this. I know your life wasn't good with Willis and I wish I could make it up to you."

Jason moved back a little but not so that her arms fell from around him. He felt safe in them in a way that was different from Rose hugging him or Slade hauling his half-dead body from a smouldering crater.

"There is one thing you can do actually."

"What is it?"

"Mother..." Jason took a readying breath. He was tensing as if for a strike.

"I would love it if you came to my wedding."

Sheila blinked quickly, taken aback. She hadn't been expecting that.

"Wh - what? You're getting _married_?"

Jason didn't know if that fact or his abrupt question was the thing that surprised her more. Nevertheless, he gave a nod to confirm it.

"Yes. Soon. To that goth chick you saw inside, her name is Rose and she's wonderful and beautiful and skilled and kind and _everything_." _And the only reason I haven't killed everyone and then myself already_. Sheila may not know what to do with that latter nugget of information so he kept it internal.

"And..." Twisting his fingers, Jason continued with a fragment of hesitancy. He was nervous enough the first time and now to have to repeat it.

"... And I don't have any family, adopted or blood, I would... _really_ like it if you could come. I - I know it's sudden and you don't know me at all but-"

"Jason, calm down." Sheila placed her hands over his, making him stop bending his fingers into nervous contortions.

"I'm honoured you would even ask me, all things considered. Just as I would love to come to your wedding, sweetheart. I... I want to know you better."

Well, that would mean her finding out he was the man responsible for attempting to destroy Gotham with a fear toxin superweapon but he appreciated her sentiment.

Jason nodded with a shuddery exhale, relieved she would indulge him in something as menial as attending his wedding, but it meant a lot to him regardless.

He was about to say a further word when he noticed Rose coming down the path from the direction of the hospital. They smiled at one another and Jason leaned back against the bench, already predicting she wanted to use him as a seat.

Sure enough, Rose sat herself down on his thigh as his hand came to rest on her hip. Jason had a brief flicker of concern as to where Hood was and who was supervising him, but he quickly brushed those worries out of mind. That bitch was not his problem.

"Hello, ma'am." Rose leaned forward to take Sheila's hand and shake it.

"We already sorta met but let me introduce myself again; I'm Rose Wilson."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I want AK to have good parents who love and care about him and I'm definitely not projecting in any sense of the word XD


	5. If Everything's Not Perfect, You Can Blame Joseph

Hood and Roy were gone for now but they promised to be back soon since Hood invited himself to the wedding. Roy was automatically welcome but _Hood_...

Thinking about the past few days, Jason was drinking peppermint tea in the kitchen of his house when the backdoor burst open and slammed into the wall. A thick crack shot up the glass. Jumping in alarm, Jason's cup shattered on the tiled floor as he dropped it and his hand darted to where a gun usually was, but his fingers bounced against his barren hip.

And in swept a snowstorm in the form of the person who dropped off the face of the earth a month ago, much to his daughter's chagrin. And he was dragging a bound and gagged mask behind him by the arm, the both of them ragged from a very recent battle.

Whoever Slade had there, a black-haired man in green and yellow spandex dipping in and out of unconsciousness, he was definitely the 'other guy' of the situation. He was bloody and bruised, his wrist swollen in a way that could only mean it was broken. He was bound by an iron cable Slade likely tore off an elevator or heavy-duty piece of building equipment.

Though his mask had become lost somewhere, Deathstroke's highly distinctive suit was in place but only barely. Burns blackened the orange kevlar and single white sleeve, both charred away in patches that revealed his scorched flesh beneath. It appeared that he'd been struck by lightning one or two times, even his long snowy hair was crisped black in parts, the strands looking damaged and brittle enough to snap with ease.

"_Slade_..." Jason eyed him sceptically, quickly taking in his future father-in-law's rough appearance. The smell of cooked human meat and the sickly sweet miasma of blood to go with it might turn his stomach if he wasn't so accustomed to it.

"... Who is that?" He motioned to the weakly groaning man tied up on his kitchen floor, highly confused while he hoped Rose would finish her shower soon and come help him out.

Out the corner of his split mouth, Slade spat a glob of blood at his captive and Jason appreciated that he didn't mess up the floor. Any more, that is.

The merc's voice was rough as smoke when he began.

"Mark Mardon. Or Weather Wizard. A high profile, extremely dangerous villain at a Superman level risk _and_..." Pausing with a heavy swallow, Slade coughed hoarsely into his fist.

"_Here_," Jason poured him some water and he accepted the glass with a nod of gratitude and a gruff 'thanks, kid'. Slade took a quick drink to clear his throat and the cool liquid must have helped as his voice didn't sound so gravelly when he answered Jason's obvious question.

"Why are you kidnapping super villains? And _where_ have you been? Rose was worried." And so was he, admittedly, but he and Slade had a dynamic where such things weren't spoken aloud. It was known but silently so.

As if he hadn't realised his daughter might wonder about his whereabouts, Slade regarded Jason blankly, the gears in his head visibly turning. And then it clicked and he gestured to Mardon.

"I was fighting a damn wizard and taking contracts. I haven't had time to drop by and sync our calendars." His sarcasm was so perfectly in character that Jason had no doubt his wounds were only surface deep. It wasn't unusual for Slade to vanish for months but if they were supposed to be family here, shouldn't there be a _little_ bit of communication?

"And you're fighting a fucking _wizard_ why?" Jason was pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes scrunched shut out of frustration. Trying to get straight forward answers out of Slade took a herculean amount of effort.

"He uses atmokinesis to control and manipulate weather, I'm sure I can convince him to use those powers to be helpful to us."

"_Why_?" Jason was losing count of how many times he had said that already but he couldn't do anything about it with Slade being difficult.

"_Well_, kid, there's supposed to be a storm and obviously I don't want it to be raining on my daughter's wedding day. And I was busy with contracts so I can pay for the damn thing."

Eyes wide, Jason stared at him as if he was speaking in a foreign language he didn't understand.

"_What_? Slade, I have hundreds of _thousands_ of dollars in off-shore accounts, you don't have to pay for anything."

"_Of course_, I do. Rose is my daughter, it's expected." Psh, and people said Slade had no sense of paternal responsibility but as... _sweet_ as this was, Jason didn't think it was necessary. Slade got nothing out of this, why would he want to cover the cost? It made no sense.

"I don't expect it."

"That's because you were raised to expect absolutely nothing from your sires but were still repeatedly let down."

**"<strike>The man has a point, Jaybird</strike>."**

_"I'm tired."_

**"-<strike>Robin, shuck the fuck up</strike>!"**

Jason flinched at the burst of anger in the disjointed voice that was already quite distracting by itself, hand automatically moving to whack it out of his head but somehow, his wrist ended up trapped by Slade's fingers before he could hit himself.

"You know that doesn't work, kid. Save yourself the bruises." As quickly as he'd grabbed Jason, Slade let him go and set the empty glass on the counter with a soft clink. He drifted around the table centrepiece of the kitchen, picking up his captive and injecting him with more of what must be the tranquilliser keeping him from killing them all. Unless Slade forgot - and he seldom forgot anything, Jason and Rose weren't supposed to get married for another week, so he either intended to keep Mardon knocked out for all of seven days or he had something else planned and didn't bother to tell anyone.

Wouldn't be unlike him, exactly.

"Where is my daughter?" Slade asked after quickly examining the room and its sheer lack of oestrogen.

"She's-"

"Here, daddy." Swathed in a towel and her hair dripping, Rose appeared in the doorway before Jason could finish his sentence. She didn't host a flicker of confusion at to scene before her, she was used to Slade showing up randomly in varying states of health.

Wordless, Rose padded across the kitchen floor to Slade, leaving wet footprints on the tiles and she stood up on her toes to kiss her father's ash-smeared cheek. A faint combination of blood and smoke attacked her tongue; she pulled a face.

"Where have you been?" Rose asked, lowering herself back onto the flats of her feet but keeping her hand on his armour-plated shoulder.

"He was fighting a... a wizard." Jason gestured to Mardon, discarded onto the floor like so much waste.

"Joseph helped." Slade added that piece of information like it made the reality of the situation any less ridiculous.

Exhaling through her nose, Rose ground her jaw a little. She never made it vocal, but Jason knew her family annoyed her to no end.

"Are you and Joey coming to my wedding or not?" Placing a hand on her hip, Rose shifted her weight in a way that let Slade know she was irritated at him.

"Because you haven't said anything."

Instead of replying right away, Slade started pulling his lengthy tresses into a hairband. It raised a lot of questions in Jason as to why Deathstroke had a hairband around his wrist. Sure, he had long hair that no doubt got into his face at times but _still_...

"_Dad_." Rose stomped her foot a bit there. Slade sighed tiredly.

"Yes, Joseph and I are coming. We wouldn't miss your wedding, don't be ridiculous."

"Then why have you been ignoring me?"

"I wasn't _ignoring_ you, _sweetheart_, I was arranging things."

"_What_ things?" Sceptical, Rose's eye narrowed as her fingers tightened around her hip.

"He says he's paying for everything." Turning to Rose, Jason let her know once he could break away from the transfixion that was Deathstroke with a ponytail.

"Daddy, you can't." It was in Rose's blood to slap away help or any act of kindness, but she was too late this time.

"I already did. Everything is arranged and it's probably not perfect but you can blame Joseph for that. He did the majority of the organising, I took care of the money and the wizard." As if to remind them of his presence, Mardon gave a small groan, curling within himself unconsciously. They all watched him for a few seconds before Slade looked up again.

"But he won't stay tied up forever, I asked Joseph to shuffle some things and crunch the schedule a bit, I hope you don't mind getting married tomorrow."

Rose and Jason both choked on oxygen.

"_What_?!"

* * *

With the sudden way Slade sprung this on them, it was all dashing around trying to get ready for an occasion they hadn't planned this soon, and that meant Rose had run off somewhere to get prettied up the way any bride would want to be. 

That left Jason alone in the nearby chapel, awkward and uncomfortable as he aimlessly waited for someone to show up and tell him what to do. Normal couples had rehearsals and shit like that, he and Rose hadn't, so he was utterly clueless. Slade was here a moment ago, he threw a suit in Jason's general direction then swept off urgently after a task he didn't specify. 

It was strange to see Deathstroke rushing. Very strange.

_"If everything's not perfect, you can blame Joseph."_

That wasn't reassuring from the get-go and the fact that the church had a stressed-out Joseph Wilson standing in the centre of it surely didn't help. Now, the interior of the building was decorated beautifully for the occasion, truly lovely in every aspect. White cornflowers and ribbons tied into elegant bows lined all conceivable surfaces and the room was big and bright, tall windows and a tall ceiling allowing in a flood of warm sunlight. Sunlight that meant Slade got that wizard to fall into rank.

So, with everything so seemingly perfect, why was Joey standing there, chewing his nails and anxiously glancing to his surroundings? 

"Joseph, what's wrong?" Jason approached the blond cautiously from the side, fingers ghosting over the gun concealed beneath his jacket. If something was really amiss, his Beretta would take care of it with prejudice. 

Joey made some flustered hand motion that Jason didn't quite catch, as if to wave him off and assure that it was taken care of. But whatever it was, if Joey's expression was any indicator, it was far from handled. 

"Can I help somehow?" Jason inquired, his reply was the shake of Joey's head and the more insistent wave of his hand to leave it be.

To date, Jason hadn't had all that many interactions with Rose's brother but enough to know he didn't talk because of some Slade-related reason (big surprise), so he could trust the lack of verbal communication wasn't out of a form of spite Joey may have toward him. Believe him, he'd get Joey not wanting his little sister marrying a terrorist but perhaps having Deathstroke for a father altered his perception of good and bad?

"Joey, just tell-"

The doors slammed open, _heavy solid_ wood doors struck the walls as if they didn't weigh a thing. The bang still echoing through the air, Hood strode in like he owned the place and Jason groaned into the hand he ran across his face. _Why_ was _he_ here? Why wasn't Roy with him?

"Hola, muchachos. What's good?" Waving his hand, Hood grinned when he came up to them with a shameless flaunt. At once, Jason noticed Hood's tiny proximity to Joey was completely intentional and the slut was trying for something.

"Go to hell, _Hood_." Jason growled at him, really not here for whatever nonsense Hood was up to now. Joey was acting as if though something was wrong, it made Jason anxious. Good thing he had his suit concealed beneath his clothing, he didn't want to risk anyone or thing ruining today.

That included Hood. 

"Been there, babe, and it was _boring_." As he spoke, he turned on his heel to face Joseph, offering up a helpful smile that was unlike him. Knowing Jason's doppelganger, he was trying to be charming.

"That worried scowl doesn't suit such a pretty face. Tell Uncle Jaybird what's wrong." Hood cooed, freaking Joey out by the bold unashamed gesture of reaching out and taking his chin in his hand.

"Don't touch him, you bitch." Jason reacted in a more outraged fashion than Joey; he shoved Hood back a meter down the aisle. He was about to punch that freak halfway to last Sunday when Joey stepped between them, turning to Hood and motioning letters with his hands.

Reading what he was saying effortlessly, Hood frowned.

"Your officiant is _missing_? Or he cancelled last minute?"

What... _What_?! Jason visibly panicked right then and there, the worst-case scenarios instantly springing to mind. He didn't want anyone to ruin this day, it was supposed to be _perfect_ and - and -

"No one panic." Exhaling, Hood held up his hands calmingly.

"Imma handle this. Uncle Hood's got this."

Joey's blond brows knit as Hood started past him, as if only registering his whole existence now.

"_Wait - who are you_?" He signed, confusion written in the lines of his brow. Already on his way out of the door, Hood waved a dismissive hand over his shoulder.

"The guy who slept with your dad. Don't overthink it, kid." There was a mischievous note to his voice and Jason quietly observed the pallor drain from Joey's disgusted face. His features scrunched up like he tasted something sour.

Exhaling, Jason patted Joey on the shoulder.

"As he said, don't overthink it. It's for your own good." 

Slade came back soon, he was busy with something that didn't look important, but his stoic face would say otherwise. He scanned the chapel and his snowy brows knit, his gaze settling heavily on his son.

"Joseph, where is the-"

The energy zoosh of a portal opening up beside Slade made him jump comically in alarm, hand flying to the sword on his back as his head snapped around to the source of the noise.

Raging shades of blues and greens whipped the air at contorted angles, the light bursting from around a tear, splitting reality itself down the middle. The sound reached its crescendo, shrieking and twisting until it suddenly stopped altogether, about the moment a stumbling figure was kicked through and Hood pranced right after.

Now, this was a _spectacle_. Where to begin? Well, Hood was holding a gun to the man he dragged with him, a Catholic priest, if his long black robes were an indication to his profession. The priest's hands were secured painfully tightly behind his back, Jason noticed he wore red beaded rosaries around both of his wrist and his neck, and that there were old burn scars circling the flesh beneath them. Also, when he lifted his head, he was scowling viciously, his teeth bared and... Oh. _What_?

Jason's brow furrowed deeply as he took in the stranger's blue eyes (flecked with red for some odd reason), his ink coloured hair with the white forelocks, and then the unmistakable formation of his features. This guy looked just like him and Hood... with... With priest gear.

_What_?

"Sometimes, when I get depressed," Hood began, pushing the muzzle of his gun against the priest's spine to give him a warning. The priest glared venomously in return, upper lip curling back.

"... I like visiting alternate dimensions to see versions of myself whose lives suck worse. It always makes me feel better, and _this_ guy's life sucks the most dick of all time. I mean, he's a _priest_." With his free hand, Hood motioned to Priesty Boy as if religion personally offended him. Well, actually, Hood had personal issues with everything in existence so it made sense.

"And how does your own mother mistaking you for tinder make you feel superior?" Priesty Boy snipped, surprising Jason at the lack of gentle kindness to his tone, such as you would expect from a high ranking member of the church.

Leering, Hood raised a fist to threaten Priesty Boy with a strike but the man didn't so much as flinch. He apparently wasn't afraid of his doppelganger at all and seemed to know him too. _Well_.

"Hood... How's he know about the Sheila-thing?" Jason's confused gaze flitted to his identical, the three of them standing in a circle with two generations of Wilsons at the ready. Though, Slade and Joey fell off the rails ages ago and honestly... so had Jason.

Hood nipped at the corner of his lip, glanced away for a moment, then blew his cheeks out when he looked back. 

"I drunkenly broke down in confession last month and told him my whole life story." He uncomfortably confessed, rubbing his hands against his thighs. The priest confirmed it with a nod, lips drawing into a thin taut line.

"And he cried the whole while..." Priesty Boy tilted his head, cynical eyes narrowing on Hood. Something unnamed in his intense gaze made Jason believe he knew much more than the rest of them.

"I was _drunk_!"

"You _need_ medication and _therapy_."

"Like fuck I do." Hood scoffed with an eye roll, dismissing the subject as a whole.

"I'd rather-"

Very aggressively, Slade cut him off.

"We can all agree this two-bit slut needs to be lobotomised and institutionalised, which shall be taken care of in _due_ time, but my baby girl is getting married and _that's_ today's focus."

Priesty Boy sighed from the bottom of his lungs, the action making the burn scars around his throat bob. Jason wondered where he got them from.

"Untie me and let's get this over with."

* * *

Priesty Boy read all the generic do-yous and don't-yous, the meaning of his lines getting lost in their gross overuse that hadn't changed over the turn of centuries. In fact, the only thing Jason could find himself to focus on was the sparkly diamonds glimmering joyfully in Rose's eye, shining brighter than the rock on her finger, and the sole thing from the priest's mouth that Jason heard was the permission to kiss her.

It felt like an eternity to get to this part and Jason indulged in the magic of it for every second he suffered through waiting. He kissed Rose deeply, warmly, bringing her as close to him as he could until only the layers they wore separated them.

In her flowing white dress and translucent veil, Rose looked _beautiful_. More breathtaking than anything Jason had ever seen, and he'd been all around this world and others.

And the guests weren't half bad either. Turns out, Roy wasn't with Hood because he was rounding up 52-Bruce and Sheila, as she didn't know Jason's wedding date was so drastically changed. She took the day off from her ER work just to be here for him. It made something in Jason feel warm and fuzzy, though he didn't know what it was.

And Bruce... Jason hadn't wanted to ask him to come, even if it would mean a lot to him, because he didn't like burdening people. But the man showed up anyway.

And Slade and Joey did all of this without being asked, at the cost of their own time and money. It was... It was all _overwhelming_. No one had ever done this much for Jason without him taking it by force. He could tell Rose was speechless at everyone's efforts too.

After the ceremony, when all was winding down, Jason found himself standing off to the side from the guests with his arm around his new _bride_. His _wife_. That... That was a word that would take a while to get used to but it made him grin stupidly every time.

Rose and Jason were busy watching their parents interacting and it had an entertained smile on both their faces.

It was cartoonish really, how Sheila was a dainty, delicate 5'1 woman with soft features that bore an almost dollish appearance, then to see her standing in close proximity to _Deathstroke_, who all but dwarfed her. Jason was sure that one of Slade's arms was the same thickness as Sheila's waistline. She barely came up to his collarbone and had to tilt her head all the way back to maintain his line of sight as they spoke. In no instance, did she appear to be frightened by Slade and that was very impressive.

Jason was curious as to what they were chatting about, Rose was too, and they made their way over to their parents. He never removed his arm from around Rose, Jason didn't think he'd be capable any time soon.

"What's going on, you two?" Rose cocked a brow with a sneaky smirk at her father, which he didn't humour with an acknowledgement.

"Having fun?" Jason persisted, drawing Rose closer to his side and twining their hands together. Sheila smiled at them but Slade regarded them with total severity. He wasn't amused one bit.

"We were just talking about our beautiful children and possible beautiful future grandchildren." Sheila offered that with an optimistic yet teasing glint in her bright blue eyes. In response, Rose laughed a bit, mostly because of Jason's blush, but Slade always had cold water to throw over them.

"Severe mental illness runs in the family on both sides, I don't suggest biological children because we'll end up with more super-powered nutcases in the lineage. I should have stopped at one so heed this advice."

"I think Miss Haywood was joking, daddy." Rose rolled her eye, perhaps appreciating this very Slade response less than usually.

"And we don't want kids, so don't worry about that."

Slade frowned, as if he didn't quite get what she said. Social and _human_ interaction as a whole wasn't his strong suit.

"I'm not _worried_, I-"

All of their collective attention was snatched up by the grating sound of irritating Hood's voice. They looked over and the slut was talking with Roy, his arm looped around his shoulders. Whatever they were conversing about, it was difficult to make out but it had them looking happy.

Laughing, Hood openly and shamelessly kissed ginger, pushing the length of his tongue deep into his throat as his arms moved around to hold him. There was no tension or lack of fluidity, their fight was long since forgotten as ashes to the wind. Roy got over it too fast, in AK's personal opinion.

Jason noticed Priesty Boy was watching Hood and ginger from his peripheral with a 'you're both going to hell' look in his blank eyes. Out of force of habit, he toyed with the rosary around his burnt wrist. The whole movement seemed subconscious, like rolling the painted wood prayer beads was something he did so often, he now did it without a command from his brain

Hood noticed their doppelganger (_trippelganger_?) looking and he broke away from Roy with a wet salivated pop. His eyes were dark, brow scrunched up into a menacing, defensive scowl.

"You got something to say, _dominie_?" He demanded, almost taking Priesty Boy's head off with the aggressive bark but impressively, Priesty Boy didn't even flinch. He stood there, unphased as his hands quietly slid back into his wide sleeves.

"Lie with a man as you would a woman, and eternal damnation awaits your soul." He calmly yet gravely explained, regarding Hood with a look of absolute severity. And it outraged Hood to an inexcusable degree.

"Bitch, I lie with _everything_ as I would a woman. And sometimes _I'm_ their woman! I fuck people, people fuck me, maybe both at the same time - I'm talking _twosomes_, threesomes, f - fucking _foursomes_, more ways of coupling than your virgin catholic schoolboy ass can even comprehend!" With every word of the so-called insult, Hood pointedly jabbed Priesty Boy in the chest while the man stood there and observed his twin's meltdown unfold.

"I have no earthly desires to hinder me as they hinder you. _And clearly_," he gave Hood a scrutinising visual sweep.

"You have been _gravely_ hindered."

Roy and Jason glanced at one another in concern. Hood started waving his arms around and that's when it really got kicked into twelfth gear.

"_Hindered_?! I'm not the fucking church boy spending his life worshipping a fucking sky fairy who rose from the dead - which, _by the way,_ if that makes someone a God, then get on your knees, _bitch_." Wildly, Hood gestured to the stone floor littered with white petals from the ceremony.

" - And fucking worship your undead zombie saviour's reincarnate!"

Roy stared, lips parted and he didn't know how to respond. That was his _boyfriend_ losing his head out there. Hood really did have some untapped personal grudge with religion, didn't he?

"Did... Did he just call himself _Jesus_?"

Jason was between shaking his head 'no' and confirming it with a nod. He didn't know what was happening or what he was watching, only that he was witnessing a mental breakdown.

"And while you're on your knees, you may wanna ask some friendly charitable hobo to fuck your mouth because I bet the smartest thing that's ever gonna come from it is a fucking dick!"

"Oh, God..." Rose murmured with a troubled frown, her gaze besieged and unable to look away from Hood's breakdown as her arm tightened around Jason's.

No one knew what to say or if they should intervene as the priest slowly removed his hands from his flowing sleeves. He'd stayed perfectly quiet throughout Hood's rant and it looked like he was finally about to change that.

"... Might I recommend you get booked to see a psychoanalytical professional? It might provide some answers as to why you have these sudden disintegrations of sanity." Priesty Boy lifted his hand, the back of it facing Hood, his middle finger raised to match his 'fuck you' glare. Jason didn't think priests were allowed to do that...

"And I've been dead too, _bitch_, it isn't a merit badge or an accomplishment to brag over. You're not _special_, you just didn't figure out how to die right."

Hood lost it. The maniac actually truly lost it as they watched. With a scream of rage, he threw himself at the priest, grappling to get his hands around the man's neck. He threw them both over the pews and crashing against the floor. They rolled around aggressively on each other, and the priest surprised Jason by returning every blow Hood dealt him, leading him to believe he had some form of past combat training.

They didn't get to roughhouse it a minute before Jason's new father-in-law stepped in like the human freight train he was. Violently, Slade kicked Hood off Priesty Boy and seized them both by the necks like two puppies. Dragging them upright then clean off the floor, he slammed their skulls together with a painful crack that made everyone listening flinch.

"You are _not_ ruining my kids' wedding with your fucking squabbling." The growl came from deep within the mercenary's chest, a feral warning that fell on deaf ears. Both of Jason's counterparts hung from Slade's scarred hands, stunned with their eyes spinning in their heads, the splintering strike more than enough to daze a rhino.

Roy broke out of the shock and confusion of whatever they just witnessed quickly when he realised his boyfriend needed saving and he tentatively slunk closer to Slade. His nervousness showed, clearly intimidated by the 6'4 mountain of muscle between him and Hood. He was right to be fearful.

"S... Slade, I'll take him now if - if you don't mind."

Slade turned to ginger, tilting his chin down to meet his line of sight in a way that really highlighted the height difference.

"Which one is yours?" He gruffly asked and with a timid hand, Roy indicated to Hood, who Slade then lowered into his arms like a claw in those toy grabbing games. Gingersnap adjusted Hood's half limp body in his grasp, leaning him against himself with a small stagger. He started dragging the idiot away.

"And who does _this_ belong to?" Slade demanded as he lifted Priesty Boy above his head like a Catholic banner. No one raised a hand to lay claim or murmured a word of ownership and that made the merc sigh in an extremely bothered way.

"I'm sorry, darling," he said as he tossed the priest over his shoulder and approached them, bending to kiss his daughter on the top of her head.

"I have to go return this thing where it came from."

"It's alright, daddy." Rose assured, readjusting her veil where he made it askew a few degrees. She didn't even question how her father intended to skip the inter-dimensional barrier, they all trusted he had the means and method to most any impossibility.

"We'll save you some cake."

"Please don't." Rolling his eye, Slade grumbled, walking away and muttering to himself about calories and carbs, that familiar line of dialogue that Jason so fondly remembered being subjected to every time Deathstroke caught the Arkham Knight partaking in any unhealthy dietary liberties. Ravager had probably heard it as well, _both_ Ravagers, and Jericho too.

Bruce came up the aisle right as Slade was showing himself out, and he gave Jason his most genuine smile that was only a little apart from his professional one. Just he meant this one, unlike when the paparazzi shoved cameras into his face.

"I hope now that you're married, you're going to stop posing as other people's partners?" He meant it as a rare light-hearted comment and Jason took it as such, giving a small laugh as he tightened his arm around Rose's midriff. She smiled too. Seemed like today, everyone was smiling - say for his doppelgangers and ginger having to deal with the idiot he insisted he loved.

"Yeah, I'm good with her." Jason assured and didn't feel like he was lying. Often, his assurances and promises were fabricated fables to get people off his back, but he meant it that time.

With a confident smile, Bruce placed a hand onto Jason's good shoulder and squeezed it.

"_See_? I told you we could fix this."

Nodding a little sheepishly, Jason focused on the floor. It used to form a ball of spikes in his chest to hear that sentence, but not anymore. Now it was... now it was comforting. 

"Yeah... y'know, I didn't believe you when you said that." Jason coyly admitted, yet concentrating harder on the floor than Bruce. He couldn't explain his sudden shyness, there was just a lot of things that made him feel _shy_. 

"I know, Jason." Bruce told him as he looped his arm around Jason's shoulders and drew him from Rose's side to his own. She didn't object, she looked happy for him, giving him a reassuring small smile when their hands pulled apart. Jason found himself in half a hug from Bruce Wayne, and unlike past-him, he didn't hate it to the point of vengeful fury. It was nice.

Quietly sighing, Jason rested his head on his father's shoulder, watching Rose drift off to converse with Sheila, and gingersnap dragging Hood down the aisle. Slade was gone for now but he would probably be back today, even if that was only to be a moody dark shadow lingering over their shoulders and reminding them about carbs and safe-sex.

"But thanks for not lying to me, B."

"Thank _you_ for trusting me."

"Hmm." Jason hummed, the fabric of Bruce's suit gentle on his branded cheek. "I didn't want to."

"I know."

"Like, I _really_ didn't want to."

"I know, Jason."

"Like, _at all_."

With a small laugh, Bruce rolled his dark eyes and dropped a kiss onto the top of Jason's head, smiling into his hair.

"Good thing you did, though, isn't it?" 

Nodding, Jason couldn't deny that at all. Not even a bit.

"Yeah."

**"Anyone else feel like we're gonna see the priest again? Seems odd for him to show up and just spend two seconds here."**

**"<strike>Shut up, clown, no one wants to see that religious freak anymore</strike>."**

  
_"I do. I thought he was interesting."_

**"<strike>Both of you, shut it. That's never happening</strike>."**

* * *

**I drewed a picture, ya'll.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what have we learned? Priesty Boy's a dick, Hood's got a deeply rooted and unreasonable issue with religion, and AK's a smol baby squiwwel who needs to be loved and protected. And NO, I am totally not planning on using three doppelgangers for anything in the future and this was NOT an introduction to the third guy, at all, so... so just get that out of your head *plans in secret*


End file.
